Derechos Human Rights

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Derechos: The Week in Human Rights - Oct. 7 to Oct. 13, 1996

Oct. 7

(Reuters) - Nigeria - The newly formed National Human Rights Commission, set up by Nigerian military ruler Sani Abacha in June in response to international criticism, met for the first time today. One of the first cases to be taken up is that of Campaign for Democracy chairman Beko Ransome-Kuti, who is serving a 15-year sentence for allegedly plotting to overthrow Abacha.

(Reuters) - Turkey/Nigeria - Turkish prime minister Necmettin Erkaban met Nigerian government officials today, as the last part of his African trip, which included a stop in Libya. Erkaban has been criticized by western countries for meeting with governments with such poor human rights records.

(Reuters) - Nigeria/Africa - As US Secretary of State Warren Christopher begins a trip through Africa, the US is reportedly seeking additional sanctions against the Nigerian government. After meeting with leaders in Mali, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and Angola, Christopher will consult with European leaders.

(Reuters) - China - Chinese dissident Wang Dan likely faces a second jail term after recently being charged with subversion. A court was expected to issue a verdict this week on the charge, which carries a seven-year prison sentence.

(Reuters) - Brazil - The bodies of nineteen victims of a massacre in Rio de Janeiro's Vigario Geral were exhumed today so they could be checked for bullets. Forty-nine police officers have been charged in connection with the massacre and their trial is expected to begin in January. Vera Lucia, of the Children and Adolescents Rights Defense Center, said that the decision was made to exhume the bodies after bullets were found in other bodies that were recently exhumed.

(UPI) - Cambodia - According to the newspaper Cambodia Times, the Cambodian government has decided to omit schoolbook references to atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge regime. The newspaper quoted an official at the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth. Since 1979, Cambodia school text books have included graphic descriptions of the torture and starvation inflicted by the Khmer Regime. They also portrayed Ieng Sary, who was recently granted a royal pardon, and Pol Pot as traitors to Cambodia.

(AFP) - Serbia - UN human rights rapporteur Elisabeth Rehn is scheduled to meet Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic today, after a visit Sunday to Kosovo. Kosovo, with ethnic Albanians constituting 90 percent of the population, has been strongly ruled by the Serbian government, triggering ethnic violence.

(AFP) - South Africa - South African Generals Basie Smit and Krappies Engelbrecht received subpoena's today from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to force them to testify about alleged human rights abuses. Smit and Engelbrecht are the first to be forced to testify by the commission and will be the first senior members of the apartheid-era security forces to testify before the commission.

Oct. 8

(Chicago Daily Law Bulletin) - USA - Former chief prosecutor for the UN International Criminal Tribunal Richard Goldstone said that the court will always face limitations in its role as a source of justice. Speaking to two classes at DePaul University College of Law, Goldstone said about the possibility of the court imposing the death penalty, "I've got no doubt at all that the death penalty is not a deterrent for stopping crime and the United States has proven that. The only justification for using the death penalty is retribution."

(Reuters) - Sudan - Sudan foreign minister Ali Osman Mohammad Taha claimed that criticism of human rights in Sudan was often linked to criticism of Islam in general during a speech to the UN General Assembly on Monday, October 8. Sudan has been criticized by human rights groups for suppression of political and religious expression, condoning slavery, and discrimination against women.

(Reuters) - Peru - The Peruvian Congressional Justice Committee voted to extend for one year the faceless tribunals that have been responsible for unjustly imprisoning hundreds of innocents. Justice Committee President Oscar Medelios said on local radio "These courts will exist for as long as the phenomenon of terrorism exists in our country." The extension still has to be voted on by the entire Congress before it goes into effect, but the one-chamber Congress is expected to pass the extension. The government has released 250 innocent prisoners who were convicted by the faceless tribunals and admits that there are 400 more. Human rights groups claim that there are closer to 1,000.

(Reuters) - Tunisia/France - The International Federation of Human Rights called for the release of Salah Zeghidi, the leader of its Tunisian branch, who was arresting after returning home from Paris, where he had criticized the Tunisian government. Salah Zeghedi, vice-president of the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights, was arrested Monday night at the Tunis airport.

(Reuters) - Turkey/Italy - Italian Deputy Prime Minister Walter Veltroni expressed its concern about human rights in Turkey to President Suleyman Demirel during a recent visit.

(Reuters) - China - Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was arrested today after police searched his home and confiscated documents. Liu has been recently sent open letters demanding freedom of the press and talks with the Dalai Lama on Tibet. This follows the arrest of Wang Dan yesterday, one of the few dissidents who was remaining free.

(Reuters) - USA - During a meeting of Western hemisphere defense ministers in Argentina, US Secretary of Defense William Perry vowed that the US Army School of the Americas would never again teach torture to Latin American militaries. The School of the Americas, based in Fort Benning, Georgia, has a reputation as a training ground for leaders of brutal military regimes, including Argentina's Dirty War dictatorship.

(UPI) - USA - US Army instructors told soldiers from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay that they should treat the enemy and prisoners as they would like to be treated during training of 200 troops at Fort Sherman, a US military base in Panama, that was part of an exercise called Cabanas 97. U.S. Army Maj. Sean Mullholland told the soldiers, "The armed forces are the protectors of civilians, protectors of the people."

(UPI) - Canada/Bangladesh - The Montreal-based International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development announced today that it would award its John Humphrey Freedom Award to Sultana Kamal, a Bangladeshi lawyer and women's rights activist. Kamal has defended the rights of women in Bangladesh. "The award is named after John Peters Humphrey, a Canadian human rights activist and scholar who prepared the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Humphrey also founded the Canadian Human Rights Foundation and Amnesty International in Canada.

(UPI) - Cambodia - The Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) claimed today that delays in sending budgets to provincial prisons has resulted in the death of one prisoner and has caused many others to become ill. The prisoner died at a facility known as T5 near the border with Vietnam in Kompong Cham province. The warden said that 35 percent of its 400 prisoners were ill, five percent seriously.

(The Plain Dealer) - Burma - The Burmese military regime known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) has outlawed the unauthorized possession of a computer with networking ability and violations can be punished by up to 15 years in prison. The law is aimed at Burmese dissidents, who have made effective use of the Internet in their campaign against SLORC. Earlier this year, James Nichols, who was an honorary Burmese consul for several European countries, died in prison after he had served six weeks of a three-year sentence for unauthorized use of a fax machine.

(The Daily Yomiuri) - Japan - The Japan Federation of Bar Associations and the Justice Ministry have joined forces to create an international human rights library on the Internet. Although an English is not yet available, the library can be accessed through the Federations of Bar Association's WWW page at http://www.nichibenren.or.jp/ or the Justice Ministry's WWW page at http://www.moj.go.jp/

(AFP) - New Zealand - A judicial authority today ordered Government Accountability League founder John Lehmann to stop using the phrase "Dob a Wog" as part of its campaign to encourage people to report illegal aliens to authorities. Use of the slogan was also found to violate the Human Rights Acts. Lehmann claimed that it was issue of freedom of speech.

(AFP) - Ethiopia - Six witnesses testified today about human rights abuses that took place during the regime of military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam's "Red Terror" when an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 people were killed. A total of 120 people face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. A soldier accused two of the defendants, Captain Melaku Teffera and Lieutenant Leguesse Assfaw, of being involved in the execution of 60 officials who were captured after the junta took power. The trial began in December 1994 and has become known as "Africa's Nuremberg."

(AFP) - China/Germany - Wei Shanshan, sister of jailed Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, has asked German head of state Roman Herzog to intercede for his release before Herzong's scheduled visit to China on October 18.

(AI) - Armenia - Amnesty International expressed concern about reports of opposition supporters being beaten during and after detention by law enforcement officials following protests that became violent over the recently disputed elections. AI called for a prompt, impartial, and comprehensive investigations into the allegations, for the findings to be made public, and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Oct. 9

(Reuters) - Vietnam - Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland raised human rights with her Vietnamese counterpart Vo Van Kiet today, including a list of concerns compiled by Amnesty International. Brundtland's visit was the first by a Norwegian prime minister to Vietnam.

(Reuters) - Burma/Germany - The human rights groups Society for Threatened Peoples urged Germans to boycott Burma, saying that tourist money would help the country's military regime.

(Reuters) - Tunisia - Salah Zeghidi, vice-president of the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights, was released today after one-day in custody. Police said that he would be charged later when they released him. The police confiscated his passport.

(Reuters) - Pakistan - According to a survey issued by the International Labor Organization, Pakistan's Labor Ministry and the Federal Bureau of Statistics, an estimated 3.6 million children aged five to 14, 73 percent of them boys, work full time in Pakistan. Last year, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimated that 10 million children were employed.

(UPI) - France - Legislation has been drafted in France that would criminalize the distribution "by any means, messages attacking the dignity, the honor or the reputation of a person or one or more groups of persons because of their origins or their adherence or non-adherence, real or supposed, to an ethnic group, nation, race or religion." The crime would be punishable by a year in jail or a US$60,000 fine. Henri Leclerc, head of France's Human Rights League, said that the law "risks being used for the suppression of opinions..." The group Reporters Without Borders said that it "opens the door...to limitations on the right of free speech..." The law is aimed at the anti-immigrant campaigner Jean-Marie Le Pen, head of the National Front. On August 30, Le Pen caused an uproar when he said that he believes in "racial inequality" and the "superiority of French civilization."

(DPA) - Israel - The Israeli human rights group B'tselem today criticized Israeli police actions during the recent Palestinian riots on the Temple Mount's Al Aqsa mosque. During the riot, three Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by live bullets, contrary to official assertions, according to the group. B'tselem concluded that the Israeli police used "illegal and reckless force."

(AFP) - Ethiopia - The Ethiopian Human Rights Council, in its latest surevy, reported 23 extrajudicial executions and 18 cases of torture from September 1995 to September 1996. The report, which was released the day before US Secretary of State Warren Christopher's visit to Addis Ababa, also noted that 50 judges had been suspended "on the pretext of restructuring of the judicial system." The 18 people were reportedly tortured for their political activities.

(AI) - Guatemala - Amnesty International called upon the Guatemalan government not to pass laws that grant amnesty to those responsible for human rights abuses. AI expressed concern that such laws may be passed within the framework of peace talks.

Oct. 10

(Reuters) - Argentina - Argentine Defense Minister Jorge Dominguez announced today that Navy chief Adm. Enrique Molina Pico, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mario Candido Diaz, and Air Force chief Juan Paulik will be retired at the end of the month. Army chief Gen Martin Balza, who stunned Argentina last year with his apology for his force's human rights abuses during the Dirty War, will keep his post. Pico created a diplomatic furor in France with his defense of Capt. Alfredo Astiz, stating that Astiz had "all the moral conditions to be a Navy officer." Astiz was convicted in absentia in France for the kidnap and murder of French nuns Leonie Duquet and Alice Domon and is wanted by Interpol, but he lives freely in Argentina.

(UPI) - China - In response to Wei Jingsheng's nomination for the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, the Foreign Ministry spokesman for the Chinese government said, "A criminal like him has no qualifications to receive any prize at all."

(Mainichi Daily News) - Japan - The Japanese Ministry of Justice has referred an initiative that would allow wiretaps to its Legislative Council. The ministry claims that it needs the ability to conduct wiretap because of new crime methods, but opponents of the initiative are concerned about the danger of abuses of human rights, as when an the police illegally wiretapped the phone of a senior member of the Communist Party. Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution states that "secrecy of any means of communication shall not be violated."

(IPS) - Zambia - According to a White Paper, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba has agreed to establish a permanent human rights commission, as recommended by the Munyama Human Rights Commission Report. The White Paper recommended that the commission include as members a retired senior High Court or Supreme Court judge, a member of the Law Association of Zambia, a retired police officer, a medical doctor, a member of the clergy and a member of an interest group.

(IPS) - Haiti - Emmanuel Constant, head of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH) and a former CIA agent who was paid $500 per month, planned the assassination of a senior Haitian government official, according to an internal CIA document. Michael Ratner, a human rights attorney with New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which obtained the CIA memo, said, "At a minimum, the U.S. was continuing to pay a guy they knew was involved in the killing of the justice minister." US officials have refused to deport Constant to Haiti, where he faces charges of arson, kidnaping, murder, and torture. Constant was release from a US Immigration Service jail in June and is reportedly living with relatives in the US. The CCR has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against FRAPH on behalf of Alerte Belance, who was maimed in October 1993 when she was attacked by four FRAPH members with machetes. The suit was filed under the Alien Torts Claims Act, a law that gives non-US citizens the right to sue for violations elsewhere. The CCR has spearheaded use of the Alien Torts Claims Act with successful suits against former Haitian dictator Gen. Prosper Avril and senior military officials in Guatemala and Indonesia.

(Hartford Courant) - USA - Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev will speak at the University of Connecticut on October 20, closing out a year-long program examining human rights around the world.

(Reuters) - Mauritius - Mauritius will host the 20th session of the Organization of African Unity's African Commission on Human and People's Rights from October 21 to October 31. All OAU members have been invited to participate and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ayala Lasso plans too attend.

(AFP) - Indonesia - Indonesian Coordinating Minister of Political and Security Affairs Susilo Sudarman named Daniel Indra Kusuma, of the Indonesian Front for Human Rights (Infight), Ifdal Kasim, of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), and Afta Mahmud, of the Indonesian Moslem Students Association (HMI), as people suspected of forming Marxist-Leninist cells and are currently sought by authorities because communism has been outlawed in Indonesia for 30 years. Sudarman said that the leaders of Indonesian Students Solidarity for Democracy (SMID), the Working Network of People's Art (Jakker) and the National Farmer's Union (STN) were also being sought.

(AFP) - Burma/Denmark - The Danish Burma Committee today urged Danish tourists to avoid Burma because of human rights violations occurring there. Sixty-thousand tourists reportedly visited Burma in 1995.

(AFP) - Burma/USA - US President Bill Clinton raised the issue of human rights yesterday with the new Burmese ambassador, U Tin Winn. The action is considered significant because it was conducted during what is traditionally the strictly ceremonial occasion of receiving the ambassador's credentials.

Oct. 11

(Reuters) - China - China has requested the extradition of Mongolians Mandugeqi, 52, and his 42-year-old wife Yinge from Poland on fraud on other charges. Wojciech Hermelinski, the lawyer representing the couple on behalf of the Polish Helsinki Committee said that they would face the death penalty or labor camp if convicted. Mandugeqi had been jailed in 1964 on charges of wanting to cross the border into Mongolia and being a member of a group that campaigned for the rights of Mongolians in China, according to Hermelinski.

(Reuters) - Peru - Peruvian Interior Minister Juan Briones Davila claimed that the government has captured 700 communist guerillas to date in 1996 and 8,000 since 1980. However, human rights groups claim that the faceless tribunals used to try suspected guerillas have imprisoned hundreds of innocent people.

(Reuters) - Peru - The Peruvian Congress voted yesterday 61-19 to extend the use of faceless tribunals, which were scheduled to end on October 15. Opposition members argues strenuously against extending the tribunals, but the government, which controls 70 of the 120 seats in the single-chamber Congress, supported the extension. Since 1995, the government has released 250 people who were wrongly imprisoned by the tribunals and plans to free 400 more. Human rights groups claim that 1,000 people have been wrongly imprisoned. Prisoners recently pardoned at the recommendation of a government committee set up to address innocent prisoners have told how they were forced to sign confessions or were convicted by the uncorroborated testimony of one person.

(Reuters) - Norway - The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo of East Timor and Timorese independence activist Jose Ramos-Horta. Indonesian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ghaffar Fadyl reacted by saying "...we regret that a political opportunist has received the prize," referring to Ramos-Horta. Elsewhere, hope was raised by the spotlight that the prize gives to the plight of East Timor, which has been brutally controlled by Indonesia since 1975. The US expressed hope that the award would promote peace in East Timor, but it still planned to go ahead with plans to sell F-16 fighter planes to Indonesia.

(Reuters) - Nepal - The Nepali parliament today approved legislation to form a human rights commission. Mahesh Acharya, a deputy who helped pass the legislation, said, "It is an important step to redress cases of human rights violations and raise general awareness of human rights."

(Reuters) - Burma/Europe - According to Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring, president of the European Union, the EU is considering suspending trade benefits to Burma because of human rights violations.

(Reuters) - USA - Former President Jimmy Carter was scheduled to receive an award tonight from Africare for promoting peace and human rights.

(Japan Economic Newswire) - East Timor/Philippines - A group of 105 people believed to be from East Timor were detained by Philippine authorities today because of suspicions that they were human rights activists converging on the upcoming summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Philippine immigration intelligence chief Orlando Dizon said that his agency is looking out for people from East Timor who might be activists and embarrass the Philippines or Indonesia during the APEC meeting.

(Irish Times) - Ireland - The US-based Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights presented a draft report today that states the Irish government is encroaching on its international treaty obligations through the use of emergency legislation.

(BBC) - Saudi Arabia - Hundreds of Saudis, including religious men, have recently been detained, according to a human rights committee in Hijaz. A number of those who were detained have been released, but the committee did not specify how many. The group said that Hojat-ol-Islam Sayid Abd al-Hamid Sayid Majid al-Hashim was detained at the Jordanian border while trying to leave Saudi Arabia, while Saudi security forces raided the home of Hojat-ol-Islam Shaykh Taysir Mahdi al-Asfur and took him to a detention camp.

(AI) - Brazil - Amnesty International issued a press release calling for forensic experts in Brazil to be granted independence from police. Currently, all forensic services are subordinate to local state police secretariats and permission from the police is needed for a medical examination for torture cases.

Oct. 12

(Reuters) - Burma - The Burmese military government again blocked access to dissident Aung San Suu Kyi's house in an apparent attempt to stop a weekly gathering. Witnesses reported that the checkpoints were in place just after midnight on Saturday. Police previously blocked access to her house on September 26 and removed them the following Tuesday.

(BBC) - India - State chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah said that a committee is being set up in Jammu and Kashmir to review cases of prisoners that were not charged with serious crimes. He also said that a commission will be formed to look into human rights violations in the last seven years and efforts will be made to compensate victims of militancy.

(AFP) - Croatia - UN special human rights rapporteur Elisabeth Rehn met today with Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic. According to a statement issued by the Croatian foreign ministry, Rehn said that Croatia had taken "positive steps" towards protecting human rights. The statement also said that Granic emphasized Croatia's willingness to cooperate with the international war crimes tribunal.

(AFP) - China - According to Human Rights in China, Chinese dissident Wang Dan has been charged with conspiring to subvert the Chinese government and setting up a network to help other dissidents. Wang Dan has been detained without charge for 17 months.

(AFP) - Indonesia - The Indonesian government National Commission on Human Rights today accused the Indonesian government and military of prompting a riot in Jakarta July 27 by interfering with an opposition political party. The commission has surprised many with its independence from the Indonesian government. Baharudin Lopa, a member of the commission, said "The violence cannot be separated from the internal conflict of an organization, coupled with external influences." The commission found that the riots results in the deaths of five people, injuries to 149 people and the whereabouts of 23 people are unknown.

Oct. 13

(AFP) - Indonesia/Sweden - Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta accused the Swedish government of not keeping its word by resuming arms exports to Indonesia. Swedish minister for aid and development Pierre Schori had previously promised that the social democrats would not sell arms to Indonesia while it occupied East Timor and violated human rights. Last April, the Swedish government authorized the resumption of arms sales to Indonesia. As a result of the Swedish government's decision, Ramos Horta said that he would oppose Sweden's membership in the UN Security Council.

(AFP) - Indonesia - Indonesian National police spokesman Brigadier General Nurfaizi rejected accusations by the National Human Rights Commission that it took sides in the events that sparked rioting in Jakarta on July 27. According to vice chairman of the commission Marzuki Darusman, security officials allowed the situation to escalate.

(AFP) - Honduras - The offices of the Honduran human rights defense committee in San Pedro Sula suffered two bomb attacks, according to witnesses. No injuries were reported but doors and windows in the offices were damaged.

(AFP) - Indonesia - Six officers were convicted by a military court for violating orders to remain calm and avoid physical contact while quelling student riots in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. Three were sentenced to three months in prison while the others were sentenced to three and a half months. During the rioting, at least three people died while the Legal Aid Institute claimed that six people died. The National Commission on Human Rights said that the soldiers violated human rights when they stormed several universities during the riots.

(AFP) - Egypt - A lawsuit filed a year ago by the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights against the country's highest Sunni Moslem authority over his support for female circumcision has been turned down by a Cairo court. The court ruled that the BOHR had "no interest at stake" in the lawsuit. The late cleric issued a fatwa (religious decree) in October 1994 stating that circumcision was a duty. Each year in Egypt, 3,600 girls are subjected to female circumcision, in which the clitoris and sometimes the labia, are removed, according to the BOHR.

(Reuters) - Colombia - Josue Giraldo Cardona, provincial leader of the Union Patriotica and a human rights activist, was shot dead by two motorcycle gunmen Sunday morning in Villavicencio in Meta province.

(Reuters) - China - Chinese dissident and democracy activist Wang Xizhe has reportedly fled to Hong Kong and is seeking asylum in the US. He fled China after fellow activist Liu Xiaobo was arrested and sent to three years in a labor camp.

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AFP - Agence France Presse
AI - Amnesty International
AP - Associated Press
BBC - British Broadcasting Company
CTK - Czech News Agency
DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
GNS - Gannett News Service
HRW - Human Rights Watch
IPS - Inter Press Service
LA Times- Los Angeles Times
NYT - New York Times
PROVEA - Programa Venezolano de Educacio'n en Derechos Humanos
UPI - United Press International
WP - Washington Post


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daisy This page is maintained by Michael Katz-Lacabe and Margarita Lacabe. Last updated Oct. 15, 1996.