Derechos: The Week in Human Rights - Dec. 2 to Dec. 8, 1996 Dec. 2 (Reuters) - Turkey - The Turkish parliament's human rights investigation commission has called for an investigation into security forces' handling of a Kurdish protest in which 10 prisoners died, according to a report obtained by Reuters today. According to a prisoner's testimony to the commission, security forces attacked the inmates with iron bars and wooden bars. (Reuters) - Turkey - The European Human Rights Commission today said that a complaint by 16 lawyers was partially admissible and recommended that the Turkish government and the lawyers seek a friendly settlement. The lawyers, who were detained for one to three weeks in late 1993, allege that they were mistreated and that their professional files were seized. The lawyers defended members of the PKK Kurdish Communist party. (Reuters) - Palestinian Authority - Commenting on an Amnesty International report issued today, Marwan Kanafani, an aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, admitted that there were some human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority was trying to stop them. (Reuters) - Mexico - Mexican leftists said today that they were reviving the National Front Against Repression, to bring attention to kidnappings and disappearances of activists. The group was formed in 1979 but disbanded in 1992 when the government National Human Rights Commission was formed. Organizers of the group claim that 438 leftists were dead or missing. (Reuters) - Burma - More than 1,500 Burmese university students staged a street protest today near the front gates of Rangoon University. According to one student leader, the demonstration was to "protest the lack of progress in action against policemen who were involved in the October brawl." According to witnesses, 300 students were detained before sunrise and access to Aung San Suu Kyi's house was blocked off by police. (Reuters) - Belarus - The Vienna-based Helsinki Federation for Human Rights urged the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to suspend Belarus from membership after Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko was given significant new powers in a controversial referendum last month. (UPI) - Israel - The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem alleged today that Israeli security forces have strip searched several Palestinian women in Hebron for reasons not related to security. The group said that the searches, which sometimes occurred in front of male officers, were performed to humiliate the women because the men were not subjected to a strip search. Itaf Abu Miyale, a 32-year-old pregnant woman told B'Tselem that she was handcuffed and told to sit while she was beat all over her body. (BBC) - Estonia/Latvia - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso said on Nov. 28 that the human rights situation in Latvia and Estonia was in order and praised the Latvian and Estonian governments for cooperating with recommendations of the OSCE and other groups. Based on Mr. Lasso's statement, the UN General Assembly halted discussion of the human rights situation in Latvia and Estonia. (BBC) - Ukraine - Ukrainian Justice Minister Serhiy Holovatyy said that capital punishment was "incompatible with the goals of postcommunist states' development" at a seminar on abolishing capital punishment on Nov. 28. The minister said that death sentences are incompatible with an individual's right to life. (BBC) - Sudan - The Sudan Ummah opposition party said on Nov. 29 that five of its members have been detained since last week and tortured. Those arrested included Mr. Yusuf al-Tawilah, one of the leaders of the Ummah Party, and imams of mosques. (BBC) - Croatia - According to a Yugslav news agency Beta report on Nov. 29 , Arkzin magazine journalist Bozo Matic has been summoned by the criminal department of the Zagreb police. Arkzin is a weekly published by the Croatian anti-war campaign. A similar summons preceded the filing of criminal charges against journalists Viktor Ivancic and Marinko Culic, who were later acquitted. (AFP) - Peru - After Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori publicly opposed the military's arrest of former general Rodolfo Robles, tensions were reported to be soaring between the military and Fujimori. Fujimori has not taken any further action on behalf of Robles. (AI) - Panama - Amnesty International today urged Panama not to deport 200 refugees to Colombia following the repatriation of 88 Colombian refugees to the volatile Uraba region. AI said that Panama should fulfill its obligations under international human rights standards and not deport people to a country where they are at risk of serious human rights violations. The refugees reportedly fled to Panama after violence broke out between leftist guerillas and right-wing paramilitary groups. (AI) - Palestinian Authority - Amnesty International today issued a report stating the human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority had increased in the past two years. AI described a "climate of fear" in which journalists are arrested, newspapers closed down, and human rights activists, including Dr. Iyad al-Sarraj, leader of a commission set up by President Arafat, are harassed and beaten up. The report also detailed torture by security forces, arbitrary arrests, unlawful killings, and prolonged detention without charge or trial. Dec. 3 (Reuters) - East Timor - According to diplomatic sources, three East Timorese men who broke into the French embassy in Jakarta early today will be granted political asylum in Portugal. The men reportedly sought asylum after participating in a demonstration in Dili on Nov. 25. (Reuters) - China - The Chaoyang District Court rejected an appeal by Chinese dissident Liu Nianchun saying that freedom of speech must endanger the security of the state. Liu was sentenced to three years in a labor camp in July for drafting a petition which urged the Chinese government to re-evaluate its crackdown on Tiananmen Square demonstrators in June 4, 1989. Liu was part of the Democracy Wall movement in the early 1980s and was sentenced to three years in jail in 1981 for subversion. (Reuters) - Burma - After checking the papers of an estimated 300 students who were briefly detained after a protest, the Burmese government released the university students. Up to 2,000 students took part in the protest yesterday. (UPI) - Japan - Sixteen Japanese men who were former members of an Imperial Army unit suspected of war crimes were barred from entering the United States today, according to an announcement by the Justice Department. More than 60,000 people associated with Nazi persecution have been barred from entering the US, but this is the first time that individuals not involved in European atrocities have been barred from entering the US. (Reuters) - Indonesia - According to the Jakarta Post, the Indonesian government will oppose any declaration by the World Trade Organization that includes human rights and labor standards. (Reuters) - Former Yugoslavia - Serbian authorities closed radio station B-92, the only independent radio station in Belgrade, as protests against the government for its annulment of election results continued. The radio station, unlike government-controlled media, had given wide coverage to the protests. The International Press Institute and the British government condemned the decision. (Reuters) - Burma - According to an aide of Aung San Suu Kyi, her movements have been restricted and she has told that she cannot leave her house. The restrictions by Burma's government, known as SLORC, were imposed following student protests. (Moscow Times) - Russia - The third International Stalker-96 film festival opened on Dec. 2 in Moscow and will continue until Dec. 7. This year's festival focuses on prison conditions, according to Valery Frid, a Russian screenwriter, Gulag victim and chairman of the jury. The festival is free and features 50 films that are dedicated to human rights issues. (GNS) - USA - Senator Paul Wellstone, a Democrat from Minnesota and strong supported of human rights, will start his second term as a minority voice on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that is chaired by Jesse Helms, a Republican from North Carolina. Wellstone sought the position on the committee because of his interest in world affairs. "Part of it is that human rights is a huge passion of mine. My father fled persecution in Russia." (Denver Post) - Burma - Boulder Friends for a Democratic Burma has asked the city council of Boulder, Colorado, to consider an ordinance that would bar the city from buying goods or services from companies that do business in Burma. The city council was scheduled to take a preliminary vote tonight and a second vote on December 17. According to Boulder city manager Benita Duran, $2 million in city business would be affected. The state of Massachusetts and the cities of San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and Santa Monica, California; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Madison, Wisconsin; Takoma Park, Maryland; and Carbarro, North Carolina have similar laws. (AFP) - Bahrain - The Shiite opposition in Bahrain is planning to step up protests to demand the restoration of parliament and the release of political prisoners. Most of its leaders are in jail or in exile. Government opponents claim that 2,000 people are in jail while the government says that the number doesn't exceed 1,000. Parliament was suspended in 1975, four years after Bahrain gained independence from Britain. (AFP) - Honduras - A bomb powerful enough to destroy a building was discovered today at the headquarters of the chief prosecutor's office in Tegucigalpa but it did not explode. Five bombs have exploded in Honduras in the past two months, killing one person and injuring 25. Dec. 4 (Reuters) - Turkey - According to Demir Berberoglu, chairman of the Turkish parliament's human rights commission, the commission has called for the trial of 30 soldiers and 38 policemen for beating 10 Kurdish rebel prisoners to death earlier this year at the Diyarbakir jail. Some of the prisoners were reportedly beaten on their way to the hospital. (Reuters) - Australia - The Australian government is holding off on a trade deal with the European Union, in part because of an objection to inclusion of a declaration on human rights. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said the objection was not based on the substance of the declaration but on the "appropriateness of operative articles of this kind in the wrong type of agreement." Opposition spokesman Stephen Smith noted that South Korea had recently signed a similar agreement with the European Union. (Reuters) - Sri Lanka - The government of Sri Lanka said today it will build a Shrine to the Innocents to commemorate victims of human rights abuses. (Reuters) - Palestinian Authority - Rashid Fityani, a Palestinian prisoner, was shot and killed by a policeman during a fight, according to a Palestinian Authority official. The policeman has been jailed. (Reuters) - Indonesia - Marzuki Darusman, the deputy chairman of Indonesia's official National Commission on Human Rights, said today that the commission was concerned about why 10 activists are about to be prosecuted for subversion. Darusman said that it was not clear why the activists were being tried in six separate cases later this month. If convicted, labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan and nine People's Democratic Party activists face the death penalty. (Reuters) - Argentina - Former Argentine army general Carlos Suarez Mason, who was convicted of 43 murders and 24 kidnapings during Argentina's dirty war, was indicted today on charges of encouraging racial hatred. Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio decided to try Mason for telling Noticias, a weekly magazine, "I am not anti-Semitic but I know the Jews and I don't trust them." He also said, "Maybe we should have legalized it [torture] to cover some excesses, like the Jews do, beating a few people to death a day...but they had the audacity to make it law. Of course, the Jews have world power, so no one criticizes them." (Jane's Defence Weekly) - UN - The UN approved a resolution 141 to 0 with 10 abstentions to vigorously pursue a legally binding agreement to end the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti- personnel landmines. Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch called it "a significant step forward in the global campaign against landmines." The 10 countries expressing reservations were Belarus, China, Cuba, North Korea, Israel, Pakistan, South Korea, Russia, Syria and Turkey and these defended their right to use land-mines in self-defense. (AFP) - Rwanda - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso was scheduled to arrive in Rwanda tomorrow in connection with return of Hutu refugees from Zaire. (AFP) - Indonesia - Indonesia's Coordinating Minister of Political and Security Affairs Susilo Sudarman said today that the National Commission on Human Rights is straying from its original aim of monitoring and investigating the implementation of human rights and is settling cases of legal disputes. Sudarman spoke at Indonesia's second national workshop on human rights. (AI) - Palestinian Authority - Amnesty International today called for a full public inquiry into the death of Rashid Fityani in Jericho Prison. Source first claimed the Fityani was killed while trying to escape and later said he was killed during an argument with a guard. (HRW) - World - In its seventh survey of annual human rights practices, Human Rights Watch accused the world powers of deferring promotion of human rights for "often-dubious long-term strategies." HRW cited China as an example where concern for security and trade economics out-weigh concerns for human rights. Cited as examples where the promotion of human rights was evident were South Africa's National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, the conviction of two former South Korean presidents, the trial for former Malawi president Hastings Banda, purges of abusive members of the Guatemalan military, and an investigation in the killing of more than 1,000 people in the 1992-93 riots in Bombay, India. Dec. 5 (Reuters) - Tunisia - Salah Zeghidi, vice president of the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights, has been questioned by a Tunisian prosecutor about remarks he made at a seminar organized in Brussels by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Zeghidi was told by the police that he would later be charged with criminal violations. The League called Zeghidi's interrogations unjustified and a violation of his freedom of thought and expression. (Reuters) - Peru - The Peruvian Congress today unanimously approved an amnesty bill that forces the military to release former general Rodolfo Robles, who was detained last week for insubordination. Robles, who is scheduled to be released on Dec. 6, was detained in what witnesses described as more of a kidnapping than an arrest. Since he was forced to leave the military after revealing the existence of an army death squad, Robles has been a frequent critic of the military and its human rights record. (Reuters) - France - North African immigrants in France today predicted months of police checks of identity papers based solely on their appearance because of the recent bombing of a commuter train. "Whenever there's suspicions of terrorism it's the Africans and the Arabs -- the black faces -- who get stopped. It's wrong to demonise people," said an Algerian working in a butcher shop. (Reuters) - Burma - Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from her home confinement today and immediately called for Burma to be excluded from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) - USA - Three local Amnesty International groups in Pittsburgh, Sewickley, and the South Hills, Pennsylvania will hold their 11th annual write-a-thon on Dec. 12 to write letters for lawyers and others imprisoned and tortured for their human rights work. Previous write-a-thons have produced 500 to 800 letters. (DPA) - Colombia - A Colombian death squad called the Farmers' Self-Defence of Cordobas and Urabas killed 17 people today in Toluviejo village in Sucre province. Most of the bodies appeared to have been tortured. The motives of the attack were no known but death squads and paramilitary groups working with the Colombian armed forces have previously persecuted and killed suspected guerillas and their relatives. (Daily Telegraph) - Nigeria - Nineteen Ogoni prisoners who have been detained for two years without being tried had their plea for release rejected by a Nigerian judge on technical grounds. The lawyer for the 19 says that the men have not been allowed access to doctors and lawyers. (AFP) - France - The French consulate in Jerusalem today said that it would give its human rights award to Palestinian Raji Sourani and Israeli Lea Tsemel in a ceremony in Paris' Elysee Palace on December 11. Sourani created the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in the Gaza Strip in July 1995 and Tsemel heads the Public Committee against Torture in Israel. (AI) - Angola - Amnesty International said that human rights should be at the top of the agenda as the UN Security Council meets to discuss the final stages of the Angolan peace process. (HRW) - Cambodia - According to a Human Rights Watch report released today, repression of the press, political assassinations, torture, and extrajudicial executions have increased in the past three years. HRW called on the Cambodian government to repeal amnesty legislation that grants impunity to human rights abusers, investigate abuses vigorously, and prosecute those who commit abuses. Dec. 6 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe - Piniel Sindiso Ncube, a convicted murderer, was hanged at dawn today, bringing the number of people executed in Zimbabwe to eight this year. (Reuters) - USA - Walt Disney Company today responded to letters from children and questions about alleged abuses of workers who make Disney clothes and toys by stating that its policies were being followed in Haiti and it had stopped placing orders in Burma last June. (Reuters) - Turkey - According to the Turkish Human Rights Association and the Contemporary Lawyers Association, four students were sentenced to 18 years in prison and four received sentences between three and 12 years for their participation in a March 30 demonstration against higher education fees in which molotov cocktails were thrown. Nine other students who were charged with membership in an illegal group were acquitted. (Reuters) - Turkey - The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture today condemned the Turkish police for physically torturing prisoners. The Committee, part of the Council of Europe, made the statement after visiting police-run institutions in Adana, Bursa and Istanbul in September. Two of the people visited by the Committee had lost use of their arms and many showed evidence of blows to the soles of their feet and palms of their hands. (Reuters) - China - Chinese dissident Zhang Zong'ai was sentenced to five years in prison for subversion, according to the Human Rights and Democracy in China Information Center. Zhang was imprisoned in 1989 for five years for taking part in democracy demonstrations. He was previously a professor at Tong Ji University in Xi'an city. (AFP) - Guinea - The Guinean group Coordination of the Democratic Opposition said today that four members of the Guinean People's Rally had been detained illegally amid a wave of arrests of opposition activists. (AFP) - Palestinian Authority - Assam Jalaita, a Palestinian guard, was convicted of shooting to death Rashid al-Fityani during an argument and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor. (AI) - Papua New Guinea - Amnesty International said that the government of Papua New Guinea has failed to adequately respond to human rights violations including killings, disappearances, and torture as nine civilians were reportedly killed by mortar fire at a church in Malapita, South Bougainville. Dec. 7 (SF Chronicle) - USA - Motorola looks set to win a $40 million contract with the city of San Francisco after stating that it was closing its operations in Burma. A San Francisco ordinance prohibits the city from doing business with Burma's military government. (Tass) - Ukraine - Zinovy Gladun, Chairman of the Lvov Center for Human Rights Protection, said today that the human rights situation in Ukraine is grave. According to Gladun, Ukraine ranks fourth in the number of crimes that are punished by execution, after China, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria. The group also called for abolition of capital punishment. (Reuters) - Peru - Former Peruvian general Rodolfo Robles was released from jail today by the military in accordance with an amnesty passed by the Peruvian Congress. Greeting scores of supporters, Robles rejected the concept of the amnesty, stating "At no time have I committed a crime. I am not in agreement with a pardon or an amnesty. This has been a political solution, not a moral one." Robles later said at a news conference that the real intent of his capture was to kill him and blame it on Shining Path but he was able to shout out "intelligence officers" and save himself. Susana Villaran, leader of the human rights umbrella group National Coordinator of Human Rights, said "This is a great triumph for the public reaction of repudiation and rejection of this arbitrary arrest." (HRW) - Serbia - Human Rights Watch condemned the recent actions by the government of Slobodan Milosevic and called on the government to respect the outcome of the November 17 local elections, cease harassment of the media, free those detained for peaceful expression of their views and guarantee equal rights to ethnic minorities. (HRW)- USA - In a report released today, Human Rights Watch charged that male officers in state prisons are sexually abusing female prisoners with near total impunity. HRW called on all stated to adopt and enforce rules that define and prohibit all forms of sexual misconduct and to criminalize all sexual contact between officers and prisoners. Dec. 8 (Reuters) - Nigeria - Innocent Chukwuma, a project director of Nigeria's Civil Liberties Organization, arrived in the US to receive the 1996 Reebok Human Rights Award after being detained for several hours at the Lagos airport. He is one of four activists to be honored by Reebok at a ceremony on Dec. 11. (Reuters) - Peru - In an interview with Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin after his release, former Peruvian general Rodolfo Robles said that he suspected that President Alberto Fujimori knew of the notorious La Cantuta murders of nine university students and a professor, which would make him "intellectually responsible." (Reuters) - Mexico - Rebels of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) today condemned human rights abuses by the Mexican government in its hunt for members of the group. In a statement obtained by Reuters, the group claimed that three people in the state of Guerrero were "disappeared" and suspected rebels were dangled from a flying helicopter to get them to sign confessions. (Reuters) - Colombia - Eleven people were killed in two attacks by suspected paramilitary groups over the weekend in Colombia. In San Alberto, heavily-armed men dragged peasants from their homes and shot them in the town square on Dec. 7, while the bullet-riddled bodies of a woman and four men were found near Medellin with their hands tied behind their backs. Carlos Castano, head of the so-called Peasant Self-defence Group of Cordoba and Uraba, denied in an interview with the El Colombiano newspaper that the paramilitaries were right-wing extremists and said that they were helping the government reclaim areas of the country from leftist guerillas. (DPA) - Turkey - A group of Turkish women known as the "Saturday women" received the Carl von Ossietzky medal from the International League for Human Rights in Berlin today. The group of around 150 women protests on Saturdays in Istanbul to draw attention to disappeared relatives and other human rights abuses. Nimet Tanrikulu, one of the "Saturday women" said that the protests had been met with massive repression by police and intelligence services. (DPA) - Former Yugoslavia - In a statement today, a new human rights center at the University of Sarajevo was announced. The center will provide students and professors with documentation for science and education and connect them with various domestic and international human rights organizations. (AP) - USA - The US is quietly granting political asylum to an increasing number of people who are persecuted for their sexual orientation or medical condition. Since June 1994, when Attorney General Janet Reno changed the rules for political asylum, 43 gays and lesbians have been granted political asylum, according to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in San Francisco. More remarkably, an HIV-positive heterosexual was granted asylum. Those granted asylum include a gay Salvadoran man who was threatened paramilitary forces, a gay Mexican man harassed, robbed, and raped by Mexican police and soldiers, a gay Brazilian man raped at gunpoint by police, a lesbian who claimed she would face the death penalty for homosexuality in Iran, and a Russian lesbian who was arrested and threatened with psychiatric institutionalization to "cure" her. K.C. McAlpin, deputy director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, says "We think this is part of a broader process designed to completely corrupt the meaning of the political asylum laws," and says that those granted asylum should be working to change the attitudes in their countries. (AFP) - Saudi Arabia - The Saudi Arabian exile group Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in the Hejaz said today that Maytham Ali al-Bahr, who was arrested in a sweep following the bombing of Americans in Saudi Arabia, died on Dec. 6 at Dammam hospital as a result of torture. (AFP) - India - Moslem separatist leaders and an estimated 500 Kashmiris left today to stage a Human Rights Day (Dec. 10) protest against atrocities committed by the security forces at the UN office in New Delhi. (AFP) - Peru - According to resolutions filed in the official gazette, thirty-six people were pardoned by Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. Since a three-person commission was set up in August to review the cases of innocent people who have imprisoned as a result of Peru's fight against terrorism, at least 78 people have been freed. Government officials claim that up to 400 innocent people have been imprisoned by the faceless tribunals while human rights groups claim that the number is closer to 1,000. The use of faceless tribunals, which was set to end in October, was extended for another year in a recent vote by the Peruvian Congress. Copyright 1996 Derechos. 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