From: hrcoord@igc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: Re: AI's Annual Report
Date: 26 Jul 92 22:59:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1476700182:cdp:1476700276:000:6355
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jul 26 15:59:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: AI's Annual Report

/* Written  3:57 pm  Jul 26, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:ai.general */

UPn  07/09 0857  Human rights group attacks abuse in more than 100 c...

Human rights group attacks abuse in more than 100 countries
 By ANNE WALLACE
   LONDON (UPI) -- Governments in more than 100 countries allowed
their forces to commit abduction, torture and murder without cen-
sure, Amnesty International said  Thursday  in  its  1992  annual
report.
   In a country-by-country survey of human rights abuses  in  142
countries,  the international human rights group said people were
jailed for their religious or political beliefs or backgrounds in
about  half the countries of the world, and more than 100 govern-
ments continued to allow the torture or ill-treatment of  prison-
ers.
   The group said amid the continued sufferings  of  millions  of
people at the hands of their own governments, the world's rapidly
changing political scene has brought some true measures of relief
in the area of human rights.
   "Countries whose rulers would not even have paid  lip  service
to human rights a decade ago are now declaring their importance,"
the report said. "In some cases, this reflects a real  commitment
by new governments.
   "In others," the report said, "it is an essential if unwelcome
part of a strategy for survival in the new world order."
   But many other countries, Amnesty  International  said,  still
remain defiant on matters of human rights.
   "There is still no serious pretense of accountability in  some
countries,  where  human  rights are most brutally violated," the
report said.
   It cited the massacre of thousands of Kurds  in  the  northern
Iraq,  the  "secret state of terror" inflicted by military rulers
in Burma and the continuing human rights violations in China.
   "Paying lip service to human rights in new laws  and  interna-
tional  declarations  achieves  nothing if in the end governments
don't act on violations," the group said.
   The report also cited the "disappearances" of people  in  some
26 countries and extrajudicial executions in 45 countries.
   It said death sentences were handed down in more than 50 coun-
tries and carried out in 33 countries.
   The United States held at least 32 members of its armed forces
as   "prisoners  of  conscience" for their religious or political
beliefs during the Gulf conflict, the group said.
   More than 2,500 people were sentenced  to  death  in  34  U.S.
states,  with  14  executions carried out in 1991, and there were
complaints of torture and  ill-treatment  of  asylum-seekers  and
criminal suspects in U. S. custody.
   The 14 executions under state law in 1991 brought  the  number
of executions carried out in the United States since 1977 to 157,
Amnesty said.
   The group also called on the 24 U.S. states  that  permit  the
execution of 15- to-17-year-old offenders to bring their legisla-
tion into line with international standards stipulating  that  no
one may be executed for crimes committed under the age of 18.
   Human rights violations in Africa figured prominently  in  the
annual  report,  with  extrajudicial executions reported in Chad,
Mali, Mauritania and Rwanda.
   The report said 1,000 or more  extrajudicial  executions  were
carried out in Burundi, while in South Africa hundreds of govern-
ment opponents were extrajudicially executed  with  the  acquies-
cence or direct involvement of the government's security forces.
   "Governments in Africa and throughout the world often use  the
violence  of  opposition  groups  as  an excuse for letting their
security forces get away with human rights violations," the group
said.
   Amnesty said many Asian governments  had  ignored  the  "gross
violations"  of  the  past,  "only  to see them continue into the
present."
   The report said mass extrajudicial executions and  "disappear-
ances" in Sri Lanka went unpunished, with more political killings
and  "disappearances" reported in the country in 1991.
   The report said thousands of political prisoners  remained  in
prison  in  China,  many  without charge or trial, and said there
were reports of torture of detainees by police.
   Amnesty International recorded 1,650 death sentences and 1,050
executions  in  China  last  year,  but said it believed the true
number was "far higher."
   Palestinians under interrogation in Israel were systematically
tortured or ill-treated, and about 90 Palestinians were shot dead
by Israeli forces, often in circumstances that "seemed unjustifi-
able," the report said.
   About 170 Palestinians were killed, apparently by other Pales-
tinians, some after torture. Most were suspected of collaborating
with the Israeli authorities, it said.
   "About 90 Palestinians, including children and  young  people,
were  shot dead by Israeli forces using high velocity and special
types of plastic and other bullets," the report said.
   Many were killed in the  context  of  violent  demonstrations;
others were shot dead by Iraeli undercover units apparently while
attempting to evade arrest, it said.
   Among the thousands of Palestinians tried in  military  courts
on  charges  that  included  membership in illegal organizations,
many were held in prolonged incommunicado detention, "not brought
before  judges  during  the first 18 days after arrest and denied
visits by lawyers or famlies for longer periods," it said.
   The report said confessions allegedly extracted  under  duress
from  such  individuals often became the primary evidence against
them.
   The parliament of the former Soviet Union  passed  legislation
restricting  the  scope of the death penalty, although statistics
released for the first time confirmed  hundreds  of  people  were
sentenced to death and executed in past years.
   In 1990, 445 death sentences were passed in the former  Soviet
Union  and  195  executions  were carried out, the Amnesty report
said.
   There were reports that one person was sentenced  during  1990
to  three  years' imprisonment for consenting homosexual activity
between adults, Amnesty said.
   In the former Soviet Union, it said, "the absence of  official
statistics  and  stigmatization of offenders made it difficult to
assess the total number of prosecutions."


Funding for obtaining these news items provided by LAcNet
Xref: sparky soc.rights.human:2739 soc.culture.europe:6666 soc.culture.celtic:5274 eunet.politics:996 talk.politics.misc:36424