From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Date: 26 Jul 92 15:58 PDT
Subject: Re: AI's Annual Report
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1476700182:cdp:1476700274:000:3361
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jul 26 15:58:00 1992


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

/* Written  3:55 pm  Jul 26, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:ai.general */
APn  07/09 1611  Amnesty-Glance
Copyright, 1992. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

   LONDON (AP) -- Here at a glance  are  some  of  the  practices
cited  as  human  rights abuses in Amnesty International's annual
report. The report, released Thursday, covered 1991 through  this
May.

UNITED STATES:
   More than 2,500 people were under sentence  of  death  in  the
United  States and 14 were put to death in 1991. Amnesty Interna-
tional opposes the death penalty in all circumstances.
   At least 32 members of the U.S.  armed  forces  were  held  as
prisoners  of conscience in 1991 for refusing to take part in the
Gulf War.
   ------
 YUGOSLAVIA:
   Fighting in Croatia, where  ethnic-Serb  militants  oppose  an
independence  declaration, led to "torture and massacres of civi-
lians by all sides in the conflict."
   Amnesty said it was seeking details on  reports  of  arbitrary
killings in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
   ------
 CHINA:
   Widespread violations have continued after the suppression  of
pro-democracy  protests  in 1989. Millions were believed detained
without charge in 1991, hundreds of prisoners of conscience  were
held and thousands of people were executed.
   ------
 SRI LANKA:
   Government troops were responsible for the  disappearances  or
deaths  of several thousand civilians since the war against Tamil
separatists resumed in 1990. But it said virtually none of  those
responsible have been brought to justice.
   ------
 SOUTH AFRICA:
   Evidence links hit squads responsible for  political  killings
with  covert  police and military operations: "Hundreds of people
have also been killed by members of  the  Inkatha  Freedom  Party
with the active collusion of the police."
   ------
 ISRAEL:
   Investigations of abuses by Israeli forces  since  the  Pales-
tinian  uprising  started in 1987 are often inadequate and rarely
result in prosecution.
   The Israeli Embassy in London questioned  the  credibility  of
the Amnesty's sources.
   ------
 PERU:
   At least 4,000 people are estimated to  have  disappeared  and
hundreds more have been summarily killed by security forces since
1983. The Shining Path rebellion "has been marked by brutal atro-
cities."
   ------
 IRAQ:
   Thousands of government opponents were detained without charge
or  trial, including Kuwaitis imprisoned after Iraq's August 1990
invasion and Kurds and Shiite Muslims  who  rose  against  Saddam
Hussein last March.
   Hundreds of cases of torture, disappearances and extrajudicial
executions by government forces were reported.
   ------
 INDONESIA:
   Hundreds of people were reported extrajudicially  executed  by
government  forces  in  Aceh, East Timor and North Sumatra. About
100 civilians were killed in one  incident  in  East  Timor  when
troops opened fire on a peaceful demonstration at a cemetery.
   ------
 THAILAND:
   Security forces killed an unknown number of  demonstrators  in
the  crackdown on the May 1992 democracy movement, and 789 people
were reportedly still missing.
   Amnesty urged the government "to hold full, impartial investi-
gations  into  the  killings  and  to  bring those responsible to
justice."


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