Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 10:24:02 -0500
              USENET." <VIETNET@USCVM.BITNET>
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      NEWS/VN: Freedom survey: VN's one of the worst

01/16

Freedom Survey

Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By NICK LUDINGTON
 Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Only one-quarter of the world's population lives in
countries or territories considered "free" on the basis of civil liberties and
political rights, a survey reports.
   The 1993 survey by Freedom House of New York showed that 1.4 billion people,
or 24.8 percent, of the world's population of 5.5 billion, live in states
considered free.
   It said 2.4 billion or 44.1 percent live partly free and 1.7 billion or 31.1
percent live in states considered not free.
   Twelve of the 186 countries and three of the 66 territories surveyed were on
a worst offender list, rated "not free" with scores of "7" on a scale of 1 to 7
in both civil liberties and political rights.
   The countries are Burma, China, Cuba, Haiti, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Saudi
Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Vietnam.
   The territories are Kosovo, which is part of Serbia; East Timor, part of
Indonesia; and Tibet, part of China.
   The report said incoming President-elect Clinton "will inherit a world that
stands at the high water mark of freedom in history."
   But it warned of "new manifestations of nationalism and brutal civil wars
that threaten the progress of the past decade and augur a new cycle of
authoritarianism if the community of democracies does not respond adequately to
the challenge."
   It cited the ethnic, religious and nationalistic violence in Yugoslavia,
Somalia, the former Soviet Union and the Middle East.
   "Without an aggressive foreign policy that places democracy and human rights
at its center, the United States stands to lose prestige and influence around
the world and will face a rash of severe challenges to its national interests,"
the report said.
   Nations in the top category of free with "1" ratings in both civil liberties
and political rights include Australia and New Zealand, the United States and
Canada and 13 European states: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus (Greek-controlled),
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden and Switzerland.
   Major democracies rated free but with a "2" rating in civil liberties were
France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.
   Among Arab countries, six were on the worst offender list. But several
others improved. Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates moved from not free
to partly free. Algeria dropped from partly free to not free following a
military coup there.
   The only Middle Eastern nation on the free list was Israel.
   Several former Soviet states declined. The Baltic states of Estonia and
Latvia dropped from free to partly free. Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan in Central Asia dropped from partly free to not free. Only Georgia
improved, from not free to partly free.
   In Latin America there was only one change. Long time democracy Venezuela
dropped from free to partly free after several coup attempts.
   The survey rates the 186 countries and 66 territories based on reporting
from human rights activists, journalists and political figures around the
world and on fact-finding missions by Freedom House personnel.