AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan: The Massacre in Mazar-I Sharif
On August 8, 1998, Taliban militia forces captured the city of Mazar-i Sharif in northwest Afghanistan, the only major city controlled by the United Front, the coalition of forces opposed to the Taliban. The fall of Mazar was part of a successful offensive that gave the Taliban control of almost every major city and important significant territory in northern and central Afghanistan. Within the first few hours of seizing control of the city, Taliban troops killed scores of civilians in indiscriminate attacks, shooting noncombatants and suspected combatants alike in residential areas, city street sand markets. Witnesses described it as a "killing frenzy" as the advancing forces shot at "anything that moved." Retreating opposition forces may also have engaged in indiscriminate shooting as they fled the city. Human Rights Watch believes that at least hundreds of civilians were among those killed as the panicked  population of Mazar-i Sharif tried to evade the gunfire or escape the city.
(C1007), 11/98, 17pp., $3.00
Order online

AFRICA
Africa -- Clinton Administration Policy & H. R. In Africa
The Clinton administration deserves commendation for its recent efforts to develop a fresh approach toward Africa. The continent is finally receiving high-level attention from the U.S. government, including a trip by Secretary of State Albright in December 1997 and a historic visit from President Clinton in 1998. The emphasis of the administration's new Africa policy is on trade and security. But neither stability nor economic development can be sustained in the face of new rounds of repression of civil society and political opposition and massacres of civilians, with their attendant refugee flows and humanitarian disaster. The success of the administration's approach will ultimately hinge on the assertive promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
(A1001) 3/98, 19pp., $3.00.
 Order online

ALGERIA
Algeria: Algeria's Human Rights Crisis
In this report, Human Rights Watch disputes the government’s claim that Algeria’s crisis is solely "a terrorist  phenomenon." It endorses the recent findings of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, an expert body which concluded that allegations of involvement or collusion by the security forces themselves in the mass atrocities were widespread and persistent enough to require independent investigation. The U.N. experts made their findings public in early August, after examining the government’s fifty-five page report on its      implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and following two days of meetings with Algerian officials. The findings constitute the most severe indictment by any U.N. body of the government’s practices since civil strife escalated in Algeria in 1992.
(E1003), 08/98, 43pp., 5.00
 Order online

Algeria -- "Neither Among The Living Nor The Dead"
Among the many human rights tragedies in Algeria has been the "disappearance" of more than one thousand men and women since 1992, following their arrest by government forces. As with many acts of violence in Algeria, authorship of some cases of "disappearances" has been difficult to confirm. Armed Islamist groups are responsible for abductions as well as deliberate killings of thousands of civilians. However, there is overwhelming evidence that the security forces are carrying out "disappearances." They are doing so on such a wide scale that the practice could persist only with the sanction of the highest levels of authority. While Algerian officials have admitted that persons have "gone missing" in state custody, Human Rights Watch is aware of no high-level acknowledgment that the practice of forcible disappearance is rampant and ongoing, nor of any efforts by the Algerian authorities to bring to justice those responsible.
(E1001) 2/98, 45pp., $5.00
 Order online

ASIA
Asia -- Impact on Labor Rights & Migrant Workers in Asia
The collapse of the Asian economy has given rise to massive layoffs of workers and wage and benefit cuts, not only in those countries worst affected by the economic crisis, but region-wide. Human Rights Watch is concerned about the likelihood of increasing violations of workers' rights as a direct consequence of the crisis in countries where labor conditions already fell well below the International Labor Organization's (ILO) core standards. Workers in most countries in Asia are denied freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively, or are severely restricted in their exercise of these rights. In many enterprises, both state and private, wages are being slashed. With little or no legal channel to voice their grievances or represent their interests, workers whose jobs are threatened or who have been laid off already have little choice but to take to the streets to protest. Labor activists are in an even more vulnerable situation than during times of economic prosperity as they speak out for workers' rights.
(C1002) 3/98, 22pp., $3.00
 Order online

AZERBAIJAN
Azerbaijan: Impunity for Torture
Azerbaijani security forces regularly torture those in custody, and get away with it,  according to a this report. The international monitoring group charged that Azerbaijan  has failed to enact legal reforms and that corruption is rampant in the criminal justice  system.  The 57-page report, Azerbaijan describes how the Ministry of Internal  Affairs often keeps detainees in a  state of isolation from the outside world, including  from lawyers and relatives, allowing torture to take place in virtual secrecy. In more  than twenty cases investigated by Human Rights Watch, no judge ruled inadmissible  confessions or testimony reported to have been gained through torture. The report  found that torture and physical abuse of detainees is widespread and systematic for  both those detained under suspicion of committing political offenses and those  suspected of non-political crimes.
(D1109), 8/99, 57pp., $7.00

REPUBLIC OF BELARUS
 Republic of Belarus: Violations of Academic Freedom
This report by Human Rights Watch details how President Aleksandr Lukashenka's government has suppressed research on controversial topics, re-centralized academic decision- making, and maintained a ban on political activity on campuses. At the same time, a systematic crackdown on political dissent on campus has targeted outspoken students and lecturers who are threatened with expulsion, often for their off-campus political activity. Since President Lukashenka's election in 1994, the government has hounded or disbanded opposition political parties and nongovernmental organizations, and has stripped independent lawyers of their accreditation. His regime has also harassed and arrested peaceful political activists, and has severely curtailed the independent media. State university authorities issue reprimands and warnings to politically active lecturers, independent historians, and other academics. University employees who challenge the status quo are told to curtail political activities or change the focus of their academic enquiry.
(D1107), 7/99, 50pp., $5.00
Order online

Republic of Belarus -- Turning Back the Clock
President Aleksandr Lukashenka continues to steer Belarus back toward Soviet-era repression by leading a government that is engaged in violations of a broad spectrum of basic civil and political rights. His four years in office have witnessed the reversal of modest improvements in respect for human rights that followed the perestroika period and the break-up of the Soviet Union. In the past year alone, the government closed the only remaining independent daily newspaper in the country, was implicated in at least four assaults or threats on government critics, and detained scores of demonstrators, many of them minors. Together with restrictions on civic freedoms that have now been codified into law, these developments indicate that President Lukashenka is truly turning back the clock on rights.
(D1007) 7/98, 53 pp., $7.00
Order online

BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA
Chemical Warfare in Bosnia: The Strange Experiences of the Srebrenica Survivors
In the summer of 1995, shortly after the fall of the United Nations “safe area” of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Hercegovina, survivors emerged from a long trek to safety with tales suggesting that Serb forces had attacked them during their flight with some type of chemical incapacitating agent. In 1996, Human Rights Watch carried out an investigation of the claim that Serb forces used JNA-supplied BZ against the people fleeing Srebrenica the year before. Following interviews with some thirty-five survivors, as well as U.N. and other international personnel in the former Yugoslavia, and a review of available documentation relating to events at Srebrenica in 1996-97, Human Rights Watch has found the evidence inconclusive on whether a chemical agent was used. In the view of Human Rights Watch, the question whether chemical weapons were used during the Bosnian war—by Serb forces in Srebrenica in July 1995 or by any of the parties to the conflict at other times during the war—must be answered satisfactorily.
Order online

Bosnia and Hercegovina -- "A Dark and Closed Place" - Past & Present H. R. Abuses in Foca
The Foca municipality was the site of some of the most brutal crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Bosnian Serb civilian, police, and military officials established a wartime government called the "Crisis Committee," much like those established in many towns in Bosnian Serb-controlled territory, to plan and carry out the expulsion of the non-Serb population. Using a thorough propaganda campaign, the Crisis Committee established a network of detention centers, where non-Serb civilians were detained, tortured, raped, and either expelled, killed, or "disappeared," leaving the town as it is today, almost completely ethnically Serb. The persons alleged by many sources to be responsible for the crimes committed in Foca during the war continue to wield power in the town. In many cases, they are in governmental or police positions. In other cases, they hold even higher-ranking positions in the Republika Srpska or Bosnian government. In these positions they may have been identified by international observers as responsible for protracted noncompliance with the provisions of the Dayton Accords, as well as systematic human rights abuses in the post-war period.
(D1006) 7/98, 69pp., $7.00
 Order Online

Bosnia and Hercegovina -- Beyond Restraint - Politics & the Policing Agenda of the UN International Police Task Force
The United Nations mission to Bosnia and Hercegovina-with over 2,000 international police monitors-has the opportunity to make an important contribution to lasting peace and respect for human rights in the country. The U.N. International Police Task Force (IPTF) is assigned responsibility for building a democratic police force in the country, one that protects human rights rather than one that shelters human rights abusers. As part of this process, IPTF monitors, who are charged with investigating and documenting police abuses, have a crucial role to play in identifying police officers who have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, or other serious human rights abuses and ensuring that these officers are removed from the police force. The overall fate of the United Nations mission in Bosnia and Hercegovina depends to a large extent on the IPTF's ability to vigorously address human rights issues.
(D1005) 6/98, 33pp., $5.00
 Order Online

BULGARIA
Bulgaria: Money Talks -- Arms Dealing with Human Rights Abusers
Bulgaria has earned a reputation as an anything-goes weapons bazaar where  Kalashnikov assault rifles, mortars, antitank mines, ammunition,explosives and other  items are available for a price — no matter who the buyers are or how they might use  the deadly wares. In the 1990s Bulgaria has been a weapons source for armed forces  in Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, Angola, and Rwanda, among other countries. It has  beenimplicated repeatedly in weapons sales to regions of armed conflict, countries  under international or regional arms embargoes, and armed forces known to commit  gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Bulgaria is an  important source of small arms and light weapons, but it has also sold a considerable  amount of surplus heavy weapons from its arsenal.
(D1104) 04/99, 56pp., $7.00
Order online

BURMA
Burma/Thailand -- Unwanted and Unprotected: Burmese Refugees in Thailand
At almost no time since Burmese asylum seekers started arriving on Thai soil in 1984 has the need for protection of this group been greater. Human rights violations inside Burma continue  almost a decade after the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) seized power in Burma in September 1988. The announcement on November 15, 1997 that SLORC had been dissolved and replaced by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has done nothing  to improve the situation, and refugees continue to flow into Thailand. As of September 1998, there were over 110,000 refugees in camps along the Thai-Burmese border and hundreds of  thousands more in Thailand who were unable or unwilling to stay within the refugee camps but who had suffered clear abuse at the hands of the Burmese government. Deportations of  undocumented Burmese migrants, some of whom would have a clear claim to refugee status had they been permitted to make one, were also on the increase.
(C1006),10/98, 52pp., $7.00
 Order online

CAMBODIA
Cambodia-- Impunity in Cambodia: How Human Rights Offenders Escape Justice
A Report by Adhoc, Licadho, and Human Rights Watch
In this report, three human rights organizations urged the Royal Cambodian  Government to end  impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations in Cambodia.  Two Cambodian organizations, Adhoc and Licadho, joined with an international  human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, to document the failure of the  government at all levels to prosecute civilian and military authorities for killing and  torture. During a two-month investigation into impunity in Cambodia, the rights  organizations found that a major cause of the problem was a lack of political will by  the government to prosecute known human rights abusers. Adding to the problem is  the lack of neutrality and independence of the judicial and law enforcement systems,  as well as a low level of professionalism in these bodies. The report also identifies as a  problem the excessive use of lethal force and misuse of weapons by law enforcement  officials. The report was based in part on a study by Adhoc and Licadho that found  that between January 1997 and October 1998 at least 263 people were allegedly  killed by police, military, gendarmes, militia, or civil servants.
(D1103) 6/99, 41pp., $5.00
 Order online

 Toxic Justice: Human Rights, Justice, and Toxic Waste in Cambodia
In November 1998, nearly 3,000 tons of Taiwanese toxic waste were dumped in a  field in the southern port of Sihanoukville. At the time, there was no law banning such  dumping, but Minister of Environment Mok Mareth said publicly and repeatedly that  toxic waste imports were prohibited in Cambodia and a national policy to that effect  was in force. Local people panicked: thousands fled the city. Others in Sihanoukville  exercised their constitutional rights and in December held two days of public  demonstrations, blaming government corruption for the presence of the toxic material.  The demonstrators did not obtain permission to protest publicly, however, and when  some of them grew violent, ransacking several buildings, police made several arrests.  The local authorities sought to blame incitement of the riots on two human rights   defenders, Kim Sen and Meas Minear, staff members of the Cambodian human rights  group Licadho, or Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human  Rights. Arrested in December, the two were held for a month and charged with  committing robbery and property damage. No convincing evidence has been  presented against them, but they still face up to ten years in prison if convicted.
(C1102), 5/99, 23pp., $3.00
 Order online

Cambodia -- Fair Elections Not Possible
The present political environment in Cambodia, in which opposition parties are not able to operate freely and safely, is in no way conducive to the holding of free, fair, and credible elections. The primary obstacle is neither logistical nor technical, but rather the determination of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) to control the electoral process and restrict basic freedoms. Human Rights Watch recommends postponement of elections until the conditions conducive to a free and fair poll are in place. Human Rights Watch recommends concrete steps that donor nations and the Cambodian government can take to minimize yet further human rights abuses and even greater intimidation of Cambodian citizens in exercising their right to elect a government.
(C1003) 6/98, 26pp., $5.00
 Order Online

CHILE
Chile -- When Tyrants Tremble: the Pinochet Case
As Chile prepares for presidential elections in December 1999, the Pinochet arrest has prompted debate about the human rights legacy of the military. The crisis has also highlighted  the undemocratic aspects of the constitution which Chile inherited from Pinochet. In this  report, Human Rights Watch describes encouraging developments in Chilean courts during the  year since Pinochet's arrest. Before Pinochet's arrest, the courts stifled most prosecutions of  human rights violations from the military government through application of a 1978 amnesty  law. However, the Supreme Court of Chile recently allowed prosecutions in "disappearance"  cases to proceed, despite the amnesty, on the grounds that such cases are continuing
crimes. Courts have charged several high-ranking military officers in "disappearance" cases  over the past year. A Chilean judge investigating more than forty criminal complaints against General Pinochet is preparing to send him a list of questions he is obliged to answer. Human Rights Watch has applauded Spain's effort to prosecute General Pinochet for crimes against
humanity and Britain's cooperation. The Spanish and British actions have set vital precedents establishing the personal criminal responsibility of former heads of state for atrocities committed under their rule.
(B1101), 10/99, 57pp., $7.00
Order online

CHINA
China and Tibet: Profiles of Tibetan Exiles
This report profiles five Tibetans living in exile in Dharamsala, India. All are in their late  twenties or thirties, and all are originally from the areas known to Tibetan nationalists  as Amdo and Kham. Today almost all of this territory lies in what Tibetans call  "eastern Tibet" and Chinese call the Tibetan regions of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, and  Yunnan provinces. Their stories show a common pattern: all had unusual access to  education; all became involved in political activities through discussions at state   schools or academies; all were arrested and detained by Chinese security forces for  possession or circulation of published materials about the Dalai Lama or Tibetan  independence; and some were tortured. The men's stories are similar to many others  we heard in Dharamsala, and while we do not claim that five cases are illustrative of a  broader pattern of repression, their accounts suggest that peaceful political activity in  Tibetan areas outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region (T.A.R.) and its capital, Lhasa,  is no more acceptable to authorities than it is in the T.A.R.
(C1105), 9/99, 29pp., $5.00
Order online

China -- State Control of Relig ion: Update #1
This report analyzes a Chinese government report from Xinjiang which recommends antidotes to threats to stability in the region stemming from "national separatism and illegal religious activity," and it summarizes the "Guangzhou City Regulations for the Management of Religious Affairs" which went into effect on March 1, 1998. In addition, we provide a listing of arrests and detentions of religious activists in Jiangxi province in 1997, as well as the detention or house arrest of Protestant and Catholic activists in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hebei province during the U.S. delegation's visit in February. The authorities seemed determined to prevent these activists from meeting with members of the delegation, though other dissident religious activists did make contact with the group. The information in the Xinjiang document, the Guangzhou regulations, and in the case data reinforces and updates the material contained in the October 1997 report published by Human Rights Watch, China: State Control of Religion.
(C1001) 3/98, 22pp., $3.00
Order online

CROATIA
Croatia: Second Class Citizens -- The Serbs of Croatia
On January 15, 1998, the United Nations transferred authority over Eastern Slavonia,  Baranja and Western Sirmium (hereafter, Eastern Slavonia) to the Croatian  government, bringing the last remaining Serb-held territory of Croatia back under  Croatian control Despite positive developments in terms of the repeal of some  discriminatory legislation, and a generally stable security situation, Serbs remain  second class citizens in Croatia. They are frequently unable to exercise the most basic  rights: to live in their own homes, to receive pensionsand social security benefits after a  lifetime of work, to be recognized as citizens in the country of their birth, and in many  cases, to return to andlive freely in Croatia. As a result of discriminatory laws, and  above all discriminatory practices, Croatian Serbs do not enjoy their civil rights  asCroatian citizens. This is particularly true for Serbs living in the four former United  Nations Protected Areas (UNPAs) in Eastern Slavonia andWestern Slavonia, the  Krajina, and Banija-Kordun (former Sector North), which formed the self-declared  "Republika Srpska Krajina," and whichare the focus of this report.
(D1103) 03/99, 62pp., $7.00
 Order online

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Democratic Republic of Congo -- Casualties of War Civilians, Rule of Law, and Democratic Freedoms
With the disintegration of the rule of law in Congo and elsewhere in the region, Congo has  become the battle ground for the interests of its neighbors and a Congolese political and military elite—all at the expense of Congolese civilians. In this context, neither the Congolese government and its allies, the RCD and its backers, nor the myriad of militia and rebel groups in Congo have made respect for human rights a priority. Without firm action from international  players in the region and elsewhere, the results for the Congolese are likely to be more abuses and a further degradation of the situation. This report is based on Human Rights Watch field  investigations in November and December of 1998 to eastern and western Congo as well as other countries in the region.
(A1101), 02/99, 32pp., $5.00
 Order online

GREECE
Greece:The Turks of Western Thrace
This report examines the situation of the ethnic Turkish minority of Thrace, a region of Greece. It serves as a follow-up to two earlier reports issued by Human Rights Watch, Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Turks of Greece (August 1990) and “Greece: Improvements for Turkish Minority; Problems Remain” (April 1992). Ethnic Turks have resided in Thrace since at least the fourteenth century, and they are Greek citizens. In 1923, under the Treaty of Lausanne, the Turkish minority of Thrace was granted a wide array of rights to ensure protection of their religion, language, culture, and equality before the law.1 In addition, as Greek citizens, ethnic Turks also enjoy the protection of Greek law, as well as of the European Convention of Human Rights. Despite such protections, however, ethnic Turks suffer a host of human rights violations. The Greek state has for the most part been unable to accept the fact that one can be a loyal Greek citizen and, at the same time, an ethnic Turk proud of his or her culture and religion. Turks are viewed by the state with suspicion, the strength of which largely reflects the state of Turkish-Greek relations.
(D1101), 1/99, 38pp., $5.00
 Order online

GUINEA
Forgotten Children of War: Sierra Leonean Refugee Children in Guinea
Sierra Leonean refugee children in Guinea are among the most vulnerable children in  the world. They have lived through an extremely brutal war-most have witnessed or  suffered unspeakable atrocities including widespread killing, mutilation, and sexual  abuse. The human rights abuses that drove these children into flight are only the first  chapter of hardship for many Sierra Leoneans affected by the crisis. Even after  traveling across an international border to seek refuge in Guinea, they remain  vulnerable to hazardous labor exploitation, physical abuse, denial of education, sexual  violence and exploitation, cross-border attacks, militarization of refugee camps, and  recruitment as child soldiers. Human Rights Watch visited Guinea in February and  March 1999. In the refugee camps, they interviewed dozens of refugee teachers,  social workers, and other community leaders as well as forty-nine refugee children:  thirty-three girls and sixteen boys ranging in age from six to seventeen. This report  relates the testimony of these children, whose names have been changed to protect  their privacy.    (A1105), 7/99, 55 pp., $7.00
 Order online

INDIA
Politics by other Means Attacks Against Christians in India
The Indian government has failed to prevent increasing violence against Christians and is exploiting communal tensions for political ends, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today. This 37-page report details violence against Christians in the months ahead of the country's national parliamentary elections in September and October 1999, and in the
months following electoral victory by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party, known as the BJP) in the state of Gujarat. Attacks against Christians throughout the country have increased significantly since the BJP began its rule at the center in March 1998. They include the killings of priests, the raping of nuns, and the physical destruction of Christian institutions, schools, churches, colleges, and cemeteries. Thousands of Christians have also been forced to convert to Hinduism. The report concludes that as with attacks against Muslims in 1992 and 1993, attacks against Christians are part of a concerted campaign of right-wing Hindu organizations, collectively called the sangh parivar, to promote and exploit communal clashes to increase their political power-base. The movement is supported at the local level by militant groups who operate with impunity.
(C1106), 10/99, 37pp., $5.00
Order online

Behind the Kashmir Conflict: Abuses by Indian Security Forces and Militant Groups Continue
In this report, Human Rights Watch charges that human rights violations by all parties  in Kashmir have been a critical factor behind the current conflict.  The report says that  if those violations had been seriously addressed at any time over thelast ten years, the  risk of amilitary confrontation between India and Pakistan might have been reduced.  The escalation in fighting has made it urgent that the international community put  pressure on India to end widespread human rights violations by its security forces in  Kashmir, and on Pakistan to end its support for abusive militant groups.  The 44-page  report, Behind the Conflict in Kashmir, focuses on the border areas in southern  Kashmir where militant forces have been crossing over from Pakistan. The report  documents several of the massacres of Hindu civilians carried out by these groups and  their local counterparts, in which more than 300 civilians were killed between 1997  and mid-1999.
(C1104), 7/99, 44pp. $5.00
 Order online

INDONESIA/EAST TIMOR
Indonesia/EastTimor: The Violence in Ambon
On January 19, 1999, as Muslims around the world were celebrating the end of the  fasting month, a fight broke out on the island of Ambon, in Maluku (Molucca)  province, Indonesia, between a Christian public transport driver and a Muslim youth. Such fights were commonplace, but this one escalated into a virtual war between  Christians and Muslims that is continuing. Much of the central part o fthe city of  Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, and many neighborhoods (kampung) in other  parts of Ambon island and the neighboring islands of Ceram, Saparua, Manipa,  Haruku, and Sanana have been burned to the ground. Some 30,000 people have  been displaced by theconflict, although the figure is constantly shifting. The death toll  by early March was well over 160 and rising rapidly as army reinforcements, brought  in to restore order, began firing on rioters armed with sharp weapons and homemade  bombs. Questions as to who was accountable for the violence in Ambon and  surrounding islands focused on three issues: Who started it? Why did it escalate so  fast? What, if anything, could the government have done to halt it? And what should  the government be doing now?
(C1101) 03/99, 31pp., $5.00
 Order Online

Indonesia: Human Rights and Pro-Independence Actions in Irian Jaya
In the aftermath of President Soeharto's resignation in May 1998, political tension in Irian Jaya, Indonesia's easternmost province, has increased. The province, called West Papua by supporters of independence, occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea. Unlike the rest of  Indonesia which gained independence in 1949, Irian Jaya was under Dutch control until 1963 and only became part of Indonesia after a fraudulent, U.N.-supervised "Act of Free Choice" in 1969. Over the last three decades, support for independence, fueled by resentment of Indonesian rule,   loss of ancestral land to development projects, and the influx of migrants from elsewhere in the country, has taken the form of both an armed guerrilla movement, the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka or OPM), and generally non-violent attempts to raise the West  Papuan flag. Guerrilla activity has led in most cases to military operations in which civilians have suffered a wide range of abuses; flag-raisings and other demonstrations have led to the arrests of  those involved, often on charges of subversion or rebellion.
(C1008), 12/98, 15 pp., 3.00
 Order online

IRAN
As Fragile as a Crystal Glass Press Freedom in Iran
Independent newspaper editors, publishers, and journalists in Iran are suffering arbitrary detention, assault and prosecution. These attacks have become more frequent during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, as conservatives within the government have sought to suppress what has emerged as the major mobilizing tool of reformists. The closure of Neshat
(Happiness) newspaper in early September is the fourth time this year that the courts have closed down a major independent newspaper that supports President Khatami's reform agenda. This closure, and the sentencing of Neshat's publisher, Latif Safari, to a 30-month suspended prison term, has again demonstrated the vulnerability of the press to politically-motivated attacks. Human Rights Watch calls on the Iranian government to replace the Press Law of 1985, which restricts freedom of press, with legislation that protects and upholds the right to freedom of expression. The Iranian parliament is currently considering amendments to the 1985 law which would, on the contrary, weaken its limited safeguards for press freedom. They would make journalists liable for prosecution in exceptional courts such as the Special Court for the Clergy, or the Revolutionary Court, where international fair-trial standards are disregarded.
(E1101), 10/99, 21pp., $3.00
Order online

ISRAEL
Israel's Record of Occupation: Violations of Civil and Political Rights
On July 15 and 16, 1998 Israel presented its initial report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the U.N. body of independent experts responsible for monitoring implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its two Optional Protocols. Already more than five years overdue, the 369-page report should have included detailed information on the measures Israel had adopted to give effect to the rights recognized in the covenant, and on the progress made in the enjoyment of those rights. Instead, as Human Rights Watch argued in its submission to the Human Rights Committee, Israel’s report failed to give sufficient information on the implementation of the covenant in practice, left out any discussion of Israel’s implementation of the covenant in the territories it controlled in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and South Lebanon, and misrepresented Israeli practice on important issues including torture and administrative detention.
(E1002) 08/98, 35pp., $5.00
Order online

KAZAKHSTAN
Kazakhstan -- Freedom of the Media and Political Freedoms in the Prelude to the 1999 Elections
In a new report released ahead of this week's parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan, Human Rights Watch charged that the government was repeating the manipulation used in the January election of President Nazarbaev. These tactics, which include the banning of opposition candidates and censoring the media will taint the polls for the lower house of parliament, to be elected on October 10. In this report, the international monitoring group methodically documents how the Kazakh government succeeded in curtailing freedom of expression, association, assembly and the right to political participation in the run-up to Presidential elections held in January. Human Rights Watch says that the government has repeated these methods in the run-up to the parliamentary elections.The 39-page report, which is based on a fact-finding mission conducted in December 1998, details the various means used to silence independent news media, to thwart efforts by opposition groups to organize, and to prevent critically-minded individuals from standing for election. The report further shows how the government directed state agencies to coerce public support for President Nazarbaev, in violation of international standards on free participation and of Kazakhstan's own election law.
(D1111), 10/99, 42 pp., $5.00
Order online

KENYA
Kenya -- Spare the Child: Corporal Punishment in Kenyan Schools
For most Kenyan children, violence is a regular part of the school experience.  Teachers use caning, slapping, and whipping to maintain classroom discipline and to  punish children for poor academic performance. The infliction of corporal punishment  is routine, arbitrary, and often brutal. Bruises and cuts are regular by-products of  school punishments, and more severe injuries (broken bones, knocked-out teeth,  internal bleeding) are not infrequent. At times, beatings by teachers leave children   permanently disfigured, disabled or dead. Such routine and severe corporal  punishment violates both Kenyan law and international human rights standards.  According to  the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, school corporal  punishment is incompatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the world's  most widely-ratified human rights treaty. Other human rights bodies have also found  some forms of school-based corporal punishment to be cruel, inhuman or degrading  treatment or punishment, and a practice that interferes with a child's right to receive an  education and to be protected from violence.
(A1106), 9/99, 59pp., $7.00
Order online

MACEDONIA
Macedonia -- Police Violence: Official Thumbs Up
This report documents human rights abuses related to the work of the police and other law enforcement officials in Macedonia, with an emphasis on police violence and violations of the right to due process. It reveals a pattern of abuse that is ignored by Macedonia's political leaders and tolerated by the international community. Violations cut across ethnic lines: all citizens of Macedonia have suffered violence at the hands of the police, as well as procedural violations, almost always with no recourse through the courts. The common characteristic of victims, rather than ethnicity, is usually the person's oppositional political activity or low social-economic status. On July 10, Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski visited the policemen stationed in Gostivar, praised their work on national television, and gave them the sign of "thumbs up." The message to Macedonian citizens was clear: this government will use force to maintain order. There are clearly insufficient efforts by government officials to reduce police abuse by promoting better training, more democratic laws, and a system of accountability.
(D1001) 4/98, 50pp., $5.00.
 Order online

MEXICO
Mexico -- A Job or Your Rights: Continued Sex Discrimination in Mexico’s Maquiladora Sector
In this report Human Rights Watch documents the Mexican government's failure to enforce its own labor laws in the export processing (maquiladora) sector. In violation of Mexican labor law, maquiladora operators oblige women to undergo pregnancy testing as a condition of work. Women thought to be pregnant are not hired. Among the corporations engaging in this practice, which violates both Mexican and international law, are such international corporations as Landis & Staefa, Samsung Group, Matsushita Electric Corp., Sunbeam-Oster, Sanyo, Thomson Corporate Worldwide, Siemens AG, and Pacific Dunlop. However, the vast majority of companies engaging in this practice are U.S.-owned, including Lear, Johnson Controls, and Tyco International. The Human Rights Watch report, "A Job or Your Rights: Continued Sex Discrimination in Mexico's Maquiladora Sector," documents how companies demand that women  produce urine specimens for pregnancy exams and how maquiladora doctors and nurses examine women's abdomens or require them to reveal private information about menses schedule, birth control use, and sexual activity as a means to determine pregnancy.
(B1001) 12/98, 79pp., 7.00
 Order online

NATO
Ticking Time Bombs: NATO's Use of Cluster Munitions in Yugoslavia
The announcement by the U.S. Defense Department at the end of April of a move  toward the use of more Aarea weapons in Operation Allied Force, and the reports of  a growing shortage of precision-guided weapons, point to an increased use of  unguided (dumb) weapons by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in  the war against Yugoslavia, including so-called cluster bombs. Human Rights Watch is  concerned that the use of cluster bombs raises questions of humanitarian law, and that  the use in particular of the CBU-89 Gator scatterable mine would directly violate the  1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which bans the production, use, trade, and stockpiling of  antipersonnel landmines. The extensive use in armed conflict of cluster bombs, which  contain large numbers of submunitions, uniquely threatens the civilian population.  These submunitions which are expendable because they are designed simply to make  them plentiful and individually less expensive are dispersed over large areas, creating a  grave lingering danger for the noncombatant civilian population. This is because cluster  bomb submunitions have been shown to have a significant dud, or failure, rate.The  duds in effect become antipersonnel landmines, incapable of distinguishing between  combatants and innocent civilians.
(D1106) 6/99, 18pp., $3.00
Order online

Arsenals on the Cheap: Nato Expansion and the Arms Cascade
As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) celebrates its 50th anniversary  and welcomes its three new members—the Czech Republic, Hungary, and  Poland—one of the likely consequences of the Alliance's enlargement eastwards  remains largely unexplored: a firesale of stocks of old weapons. These arms will  continue to fan the flames of violent conflict around the world, and embolden human  rights abusers.  To be sure, cheap and obsolete weapons have been in high demand  by combatants with dismal records on human rights. This lethal trade will only increase  when more weapons are freed up by former Warsaw Pact countries downsizing their  military forces and striving to upgrade their arsenals to meet NATO standards. The  signs of this trend have been visible since the early 1990s when Warsaw Pact  standard weapons, particularly small arms, were acquired by combatants in Africa and  elsewhere, at times in violation of international or regional arms embargoes.
(D1105) 4/99, 21pp., $3.00
Order Online

NIGERIA
Nigeria: Crackdown in the Niger Delta
In this twenty-five page report,  Human Rights Watch also draws attention to the crisis  among Nigeria's oil producing communities, where serious human rights violations  have continued unabated,  despite the relaxation of repression elsewhere in Nigeria  since the death of former head of state General Sani Abacha in June 1998. This report  is an update to The Price of Oil, a 200-page Human Rights Watch report on  corporate responsibility in the oil producing communities in Nigeria released in  February  1999. The report also examines the military response to initially peaceful  demonstrations against oil production in the Niger Delta in late December and early  January, concluding that more than one hundred people, mostly unarmed, were killed  by soldiers. Human Rights Watch urges that those responsible be prosecuted or  disciplined. It also recommends that Nigeria's government initiate an immediate,  inclusive and transparent process of negotiation with freely chosen representatives of  the peoples living in the Niger Delta to resolve the  issues surrounding the production  of oil.
(A1102), 5/99, 27pp., $5.00
Order online

NORTHERN IRELAND
Northern Ireland A New Beginning to Policing
Human Rights Watch has prepared this assessment of the Patten Commission report-issued on September 9, 1999-as a means of following up on its participation in the commission's consultation process and as a contribution to the government's three month post-report consultation period. We are committed to monitoring the implementation of the report, and this
assessment highlights both positive and problematic elements of the report that we believe may either facilitate or hinder its implementation. We also make several recommendations on key human rights issues that were not addressed or were inadequately addressed by the Patten Commission. Human Rights Watch views the report as a positive contribution to the
work of reforming the police force but feels strongly that measures in addition to the report's  recommendations must be taken to bring law enforcement in Northern Ireland into conformity with international human rights standards.
(D1115) 11/99, 21pp., $3.00
Order Online
 

Northern Ireland -- An Analysis of the Human Rights Provisions
Human Rights Watch, the largest U.S.-based international nongovernmental human rights organization, welcome the presentation of an historic peace accord to the people of Ireland, north and south. Human Rights Watch is particularly pleased to note that the new agreement reflects an understanding of the relationship between the protection and promotion of universal human rights and the probabilities for a lasting, just, and durable peace. The human rights provisions of the agreement address a number of issues of critical concern to human rights organizations that have been working in Northern Ireland for many years. Some measures, which would have enhanced human rights protections, are absent from the agreement. This paper analyzes the human rights provisions of the new accord and also makes recommendations concerning points in the accord which appear too vague to afford maximum protection. Human Rights Watch has focused its research and advocacy efforts primarily on policing, security, and justice issues and address these issues in some detail.
(D1003) 4/98, 10pp., $3.00
 Order online

RUSSIA
Russian Federation: Ethnic Discrimination in Southern Russia
Ethnic discrimination in the Russian Federation has persisted and perhaps even worsened since the break-up of the Soviet Union. The government has failed to combat discrimination and is in many ways responsible for perpetuating discriminatory practices. While this is evident in much of Russia, it is striking in Stavropol and Krasnodar, two provinces in southern Russia that make up part of the North Caucasus region. A common form of state-sponsored discrimination in these provinces is police harassment of ethnic Caucasians through selective enforcement of residence requirements (propiska) and mandatory registration of visitors. Police selectively enforce these rules, sometimes together with Cossack units — paramilitary organizations composed of ethnic Slavs that in southern Russia operate with government sanction — through arbitrary identity checks on the street, on highways, and in homes, during which victims are often forced to pay bribes and sometimes are beaten and detained.
(D1008) 8/98, 38 pp., $5.00
Order online

State Response to Violence Against Women
This report examines in-depth the state response to sexual violence outside the home as well as to sexual and other violence by intimate partners inside the home. Violence against women is a pervasive problem in Russia. According to government statistics, nearly 11,000 women reported rape or attempted rape in 1996; the government simply does not gather statistics on women assaulted or killed by their partners. Yekaterina Lakhova, President Yeltsin's advisor on women's issues, has estimated that 14,000 women in Russia are killed by husbands or family members each year. These statistics, however, by no means document the extent of the problem of gender-based violence. According to women's rights activists, only about 5 to 10 percent of rape victims report to the police, and the rate of reporting by domestic violence victims is even lower. While myriad factors contribute to a victim's decision to report or to remain silent, Human Rights Watch found that the inadequacy of the government's response to victims of violence plays a significant role in perpetuating the silence and underreporting.
(D913) 12/97, 52pp., $7.00
Order online

SERBIA/MONTENEGRO
Deepening Authoritarianism in Serbia: The Purge of the Universities
Under the pretext of “depoliticizing” the campuses, the Serbian parliament in May 1998 enacted a  law that removed basic protections for academic freedom and destroyed the autonomy of universities in Serbia. Over the past seven months, leaders of the ruling parties have put their own political allies in charge of the campuses and have suspended or fired many of the most respected professors and researchers in Serbia. The de facto government takeover of the universities is part of a broader effort by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to shut down dissent, autonomous inquiry, and free expression in Serbia. With the attention of the international community focused on preventing further bloodshed in conflict-ridden Kosovo, Milosevic and his political allies have used their control of the Serbian parliament to enact and
implement draconian new laws severely restricting independent media and freedom of expression.
(D1102), 01/99, 32pp., $5.00.
 Order online

SIERRA LEONE
 Sierra Leone: Getting Away with Murder, Mutilation, and Rape
This sixty-page report documents how, as rebels took control of the city in January  1999, they made little distinction between civilian and military targets. Testimonies  from victims and survivors describe numerous massacres of civilians gathered in  houses, churches and mosques. One massacre in a mosque on January 22 resulted in  the deaths of sixty-six people. A woman describes how she escaped from a burning  house after rebels set her mother and daughter on  fire. A child recounts how, from  her hiding place, she watched rebels execute seventeen of  her family and friends. The  report also includes testimonies from girls and women who describe how they were  systematically rounded up by the rebels, brought to rebel command centers and then  subjected to individual and gang-rape. Young girls under seventeen, and particularly  those deemed to be virgins, were specifically targeted, and hundreds of them were  later abducted by the rebels. Human Rights Watch documents how entire families  were gunned down in the street, children and adults had their limbs hacked off with  machetes, and girls and young women were taken to rebel bases and sexually  abused.
(A1103), 6/99, 56pp., $7.00
Order online

SUDAN
Sudan -- Global Trade Local Impact:
Arms Transfers to all Sides in the Civil War in Sudan
More than one million people may have died, with millions more forcibly displaced, since today’s ongoing civil war broke out in Sudan in 1983. This conflict is spreading to other regions of the country and is linked to guerrilla wars in neighboring Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda. A steady flow of arms into the Horn of Africa for the past half century has fueled the fighting and multiplied its lethal impact on the civilian population. Human Rights Watch began its investigation of the arms trade feeding the Sudanese civil war in 1996, concentrating on types of armaments, sources of arms supply, channels of arms distribution, and the connection between arms flows and already identified human rights abusers.
(A1004) 8/98, 52 pp., $7.00
Order online

TAJIKISTAN
Tajikistan: Freedom of Expression Still Threatened
Despite legislation protecting freedom of speech and the press in Tajikistan, in practice freedom of expression is severely
limited. For six years major opposition parties and their newspapers were banned. The government of Tajikistan continues
to employ a variety of tactics to limit political content in the remaining media. It intimidates journalists and editors through
threats and "guidance" sessions. Government-run printers often refuse to print newspapers that run controversial material.
Foreign journalists whose reporting displeases the government have lost their accreditation. A burdensome licensing
process has kept independent radio stations off the airwaves. As this report went to press, on the eve of Tajikistan's
November 6 presidential elections, the government had quashed all but one independent newspaper in the capital covering
political affairs.
(D1114) 11/99, 31pp., $5.00

Tajikistan -- Leninabad: Crackdown in the North
Five years of civil war in Tajikistan were formally brought to a close on June 27, 1997, when a peace accord was signed between the government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO). A major force, however, was left out of the peace negotiations: the political opposition based in Tajikistan's northern region, Leninabad. Beginning in 1996, when the Leninabadi opposition sought a prominent role in the peace process, the Tajikistan government responded with a campaign to discredit that opposition's legitimacy and influence by cracking down on the region's political parties, arresting and harassing activists or suspected activists, and censoring from the media most information about the Leninabad political movement. A wave of demonstrations in Leninabad in May 1996 demanded, among other things, the removal of officials of southern Tajik origin-currently the dominant political clan in Tajikistan-from their police and government posts in the region. Freedom of expression is severely limited in Tajikistan generally, and in this context the government arrested and harassed journalists and threatened newspapers in order to limit coverage of the Leninabadi political movement and controversial events in the north.
(D1002) 4/98, 31pp., $5.00
 Order online

TANZANIA
Tanzania -- In the Name of Security: Forced Round-Ups of Refugees in Tanzania
Tens of thousands of refugees, some of whom have lived in Tanzania for more than  two decades, have been rounded up by the Tanzanian army and confined to camps  for the past year in the western part of the country, Human Rights Watch charges in  this report.This new  report from Human Rights Watch charges that the Tanzanian  army separated the refugees from their families and stripped them of their belongings in  an indiscriminate response to security risks from outside the country. With little or no  notice, the Tanzanian army swept through villages close to the Burundian and  Rwandan  borders, apprehending thousands of refugees from their homes and sending  them to the refugee camps. This report contains testimonies from Burundian refugees,  many of whom had built  homes, farms, and livelihoods in the government-provided  settlements for over two decades, who spoke with  regret about their destroyed  communities, empty looted homes, and ruined crops.
(A1104), 7/99, 36pp., $5.00
Order online

UNITED STATES
U.S.: Red Onion State Prison: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in Virginia
The treatment of inmates at Red Onion State Prison, Virginia's first super-maximum  security facility, raises serious human rights concerns.1 The Virginia Department of  Corrections is responsible for safely and humanely confining all its inmates, even those  deemed to be violent, disruptive or to pose other security risks. Like many corrections  departments across the country, Virginia's has endorsed the confinement of  purportedly dangerous inmates in extremely restrictive, highly controlled facilities.  Absent thoughtful leadership and careful policies, the potential for human rights abuses  at such "supermax" facilities is great. At Red Onion, unfortunately, the Virginia  Department of Corrections has failed to embrace basic tenets of sound correctional  practice and laws protecting inmates from abusive, degrading or cruel treatment.
(G1101) 05/99, 24pp., $3.00
 Order Online

United States -- Detained and Deprived of Rights: Children in the Custody of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
In this report, Human Rights Watch charges the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) with violating the rights of unaccompanied children in its custody. The report finds that roughly one-third of detained children are held in punitive, jail-like detention centers, even though most children in INS custody are being detained for administrative reasons while their case is pending, not as a punishment for criminal behavior. Approximately 5000 unaccompanied children are detained by the INS each year. Human Rights Watch focused its report on a  Pennsylvania facility that the INS claims is one of the best in the country. However, the report found that too many children are locked up in prison-like conditions with juveniles accused of murder, rape and drug trafficking, where they are forbidden to speak their native language,  instructed not to laugh, and, according to several interviewees, even forced to ask permission to scratch their noses. Human Rights Watch found that some children are strip searched and restrained by handcuffs during transport, and denied basic rights to privacy.
(G1004), 12/98, 28pp., 5.00
 Order online

Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States
The expansion of suffrage to all sectors of the population is one of the United States’ most important political triumphs. Once the privilege of wealthy white men, the vote is now a basic right held as well by the poor and working classes, racial minorities, women and young adults. Today, all mentally competent adults have the right to vote with only one exception: convicted criminal offenders. In forty-six states and the District of Columbia, criminal disenfranchisement laws deny the vote to all convicted adults in prison. The racial impact of disenfranchisement laws is particularly egregious. Thirteen percent of African American men—1.4 million—are disenfranchised, representing just over one-third (36 percent) of the total disenfranchised population.  If current trends continue, the rate of disenfranchisement for black men could reach 40 percent in the states that disenfranchise ex-offenders.
(G1003), 10/98, 27pp., $5.00
Order online

United States -- Nowhere to Hide: Retaliation Against Women in Michigan State Prisons
This report documents how women inmates who have been raped by guards in Michigan prisons are suffering retaliation from their attackers."In Michigan, a woman risks being sexually assaulted  if she’s imprisoned, and being terrorized by guards if she dares report the assault," said Regan  Ralph, executive director of theWomen’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. "If this were happening in another country, no one would hesitate to call it what it is: a terrible abuse of  human rights."  Thirty-one women have filed a class action lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections, charging that prison management has failed to prevent sexual assault and abuse by guards and staff. The suit, which is being jointly prosecuted by private lawyers and the U.S. Department of Justice, also charges that women face retaliation when they report  rape: everything from verbal abuse, to being placed in solitary confinement, to being raped again. One plaintiff was placed on a permanent visitation ban and has not seen her daughter for nearly two years. She is now on a hunger strike to protest her treatment.
(G1002), 09/98, 27pp., $5.00
Order online

United States -- Locked Away: Immigration Detainees in Jails in the United States
Human Rights Watch charges that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is  now holding more than half of its detainees in jails where they are subjected to punitive  treatment and may be mixed with criminal inmates. With its own detention facilities overwhelmed, the INS is placing its administrative detainees in jails, even though they are not serving criminal sentences. Those detained include asylum seekers, undocumented individuals picked up by the INS on the street or during workplace raids, and individuals with previous convictions who are now awaiting deportation. The 84-page report, Locked Away: Immigration Detainees in Local Jails in the United States, reflects research conducted over an eighteen-month period, including visits to fourteen jails in seven states and interviews with more than 200 INS detainees.
(G1001), 09/98, 84 pp., $7.00
Order online

UZBEKISTAN
Uzbekistan--Class Dismissed Discriminatory Expulsions of Muslim Students
October 1999 (D1112)
Schools and universities throughout Uzbekistan are closing their doors to Muslim men with beards and women in headscarves, Human Rights Watch said today. In a new report about   Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch documents a pernicious form of religious discrimination practiced by the government against Muslims. The report describes the government's zero-tolerance policy toward Muslim students who wear headscarves and beards. Government officials have unceremoniously expelled the students from schools and universities. Most of those expelled were girls and young women. In some cases, university officials have joined state security agents to intimidate and harass Muslim students who persisted in wearing religious attire, and their families. The Ministry of State Security (the successor to the KGB) has threatened some students, and warned their parents of being fired from their jobs. Police have planted evidence on suspects and beaten detainees. Judges presided over blatantly unfair trials, ignoring police misdeeds and convicting men on the basis of their religious beliefs.
(D1112), 10/99, 40pp., $5.00
Order online

Uzbekistan -- Crackdown in the Farghona Valley: Arbitrary Arrests and Discrimination
Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the Republic of Uzbekistan has made little progress in moving away from Soviet-style repression of human rights. In recent years it has acknowledged some human rights problems, such as poorly trained police officers, but as a rule the government dismisses the abuses as necessary to stabilize the country during its transition toward its stated goals of democracy and a free-market economy. But a government policy of intolerance toward what it perceives as the primary threat to state stability - Muslims whom the government generally refers to as "Wahhabis" - makes a travesty of the government's assertion that the stability born of repression is necessary to achieve democracy. The human rights abuses committed during a crackdown in the Farghona Valley, an Islamic stronghold, that began intensively in early December 1997 are a natural outgrowth of the government's unchecked repression of what can loosely be referred to as "independent" Muslims or those who chafe at state-regulated Islam. It also represents the most dramatic and worrisome escalation of human rights abuses seen in recent years in this already highly repressive country.
(D1004) 5/98, 33pp., $5.00
 Order Online

YUGOSLAVIA
 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Abuses against Serbs and Roma in the New Kosovo
This report documents how ethnic Serbs and Roma (Gypsies) face fear, uncertainty,  and violence in Kosovo. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for  Refugees (UNHCR), more than 164,000 Serbs have left Kosovo during the seven  weeks since Yugoslav and Serb forces withdrew and the NATO-led Kosovo Force  (KFOR) entered the province. Many others have moved to Serb or Roma enclaves  under KFOR protection within Kosovo. A wave of arson and looting of Serb and  Roma homes throughout Kosovo has ensued. Serbs and Roma remaining in Kosovo  have been subject to repeated incidents of harassment and intimidation, including  severe beatings. Most  seriously, there has been a spate of murders and abductions of  Serbs since mid-June, including the late July massacre of Serb farmers.
(D1110) 08/99, 18 pp., 3.00
Order online

 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: "Ethnic Cleansing" in the Glogovac Municipality
On June 15, 1999, Serbian and Yugoslav forces withdrew from the town of Glogovac  in the Drenica region of central Kosovo, in accordance with the agreement signed by  NATO and Yugoslavia's military leadership. Thousands of traumatized ethnic  Albanian civilians, as well as members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA),  promptly emerged from their homes and the nearby hills for the first time since NATO  raids began on March 24. This report documents some of the abuses and war crimes  that took place in the Glogovac region between March 19 and June 15. It is based on  extensive interviews with ethnic Albanians while they were refugees in neighboring  Macedonia, as well as on interviews with those who returned to the Glogovac area in  late June. The testimonies from the two groups, as well as the physical evidence in the  region, are remarkably consistent and, taken together, paint an undeniable picture of  systematic abuse by Serbian and Yugoslav forces.
(D1108), 7/99, 26 pp., $5.00
 Order online

 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Detentions and Abuse in Kosovo
At least 1,000 ethnic Albanians are currently believed to be in Serbian prisons and police stations, according to Human Rights Watch. In Detention and Abuse in Kosovo, released  today, Human Rights Watch charges that many have been subjected to beatings and torture to extract confessions or to obtain information about the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and are being tried on charges of "terrorism." On October 14, the Serbian government announced a general amnesty for "crimes related to the conflict in Kosovo." The Serbian parliament declared that no one would be prosecuted for crimes related to the conflict, "except for crimes against humanity and international law." Despite these promises, large numbers of ethnic Albanians remain in custody and Human Rights Watch has no information that anyone arrested during the conflict has been released as a result of this amnesty.
(D1010), 12/98, 29pp., $5.00
 Order online

ZAMBIA
Zambia -- No Model for Democracy: Continuing H. R. Violations
Political tensions began to rise in Zambia soon after the conclusion of the June 1997 Consultative Group (CG) meeting on Zambia. Two weeks after the meeting closed, the opposition United National Independence Party (UNIP) found its Lusaka headquarters besieged by police and filled with tear gas. Some passersby were caught up in the police attack and at least one market stallholder was badly beaten. Twenty-three UNIP supporters who left the building were arrested , some whom were badly beaten with batons at the Force Headquarters of the police in Lusaka. Eleven detainees, including UNIP Central Committee member Rabbison Chongo, were reportedly seriously injured, among them, two women spent five days in hospital, one with a broken leg, and the other with an injured knee. One detainee was reportedly tortured with electric shocks.n this report, Human Rights Watch documents serious abuses by the Zambian government such as police brutality and torture of detainees. Former president Kenneth Kaunda and opposition leader Rodger Chongwe were injured in August 1997 when police opened fire with live ammunition to disperse an opposition rally and are lucky to be alive. In addition, a number of opposition leaders were targeted and as many as eighty-two were detained. A number of these detainees were tortured.The Zambian government has said it wants to hold a 'trial within a trial' for the alleged torturers when the High Court starts its hearing of those supposedly implicated in the October coup. Human Rights Watch condemns such a proposal as insufficient to address these serious allegations of abuse and calls for an independent inquiry.
(A1002) 5/98, 57pp., $7.00
 Order online

Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Ave 34th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10118-3299
212 216-1220