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Human Rights Defenders

August 2001 marked the first anniversary of the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for human rights defenders. Hina Jilani was the first to carry out the post's mandate, which called for her to press for the implementation of the 1998 Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and intervene in cases of threats to and harassment of human rights defenders worldwide. Since October 2000, Jilani had sent urgent appeals and communications to, among others, the governments of Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom voicing her concerns over the targeting of human rights defenders in those countries. Jilani worked closely with other U.N. thematic mechanisms, such as the special rapporteurs on torture, on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and on violence against women, and the chairman-rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Since her appointment, Jilani had focused on countries where immediate attention to the safety of human rights defenders was needed. She visited Kyrgyzstan in August, where she stated her concerns that basic civil rights were not being systematically observed; Kyrgyz authorities refused to allow her to meet with Topchubek Turgunaliev, a political activist who was in a prison hospital at the time.

Colombia continued to be extremely dangerous for human rights defenders. On December 13, 2000, Fernando Cruz Peña, from the city of Cali, Valle, was forcibly disappeared. Cruz represented Colombians accused of support for guerrilla groups. On December 24, 2000, Fernando Rafael Castro Escobar, from Sabanas de Angel, Magdalena, was killed. Castro served as the personero of Sabanas de Angel, and collected local reports of rights violations. On February 12, 2001, Iván Villamizar Luciani, a former public advocate, was shot and killed by ten gunmen outside the Free University in Cúcuta, Norte de Santander, where he was serving as president. On February 17, Carmenza Trujillo Bernal, a member of the Caldas Human Rights Committee, was killed in Chinchiná, Caldas. On May 5, Gonzalo Zárate Triana, a founding member of the Meta Civic Committee for Human Rights, was killed in Villavicencio. On May 12, Dario Suárez Meneses, the leader of a local displaced group, was killed, in the city of Neiva, Huila. On May 19, José Jorge Navarro G. was killed near San Antonio, Tolima. He was the director of a local chapter of the Colombian Red Cross. Kimy Pernia Domicó, a leader of the indigenous Emberá-Katío, was forcibly "disappeared" on June 2, in Tierralta, Córdoba, and was presumed dead. On September 2, former Apartadó, Antioquia, town council member José de Jesús Geman was killed in a Bogotá hotel. Geman was preparing to deliver material to the attorney general's office as part of the continuing case against retired general Rito Alejo del Río, who was being investigated for supporting paramilitary groups. Alma Rosa Jaramillo Lafourie's, a lawyer who worked with the Middle Magdalena Development and Peace Program (Programa de Desarrollo y Paz del Magdalena Medio, PDPMM), was found dead on July 1 near the city of Barrancabermeja, Santander, after she had been kidnapped by paramilitaries who had been engaged in a deadly campaign against rights workers in the region. On July 18, Eduardo Estrada, also with PDPMM, was murdered in the town of San Pablo, Bolívar. On September 19, armed men shot and killed Roman Catholic nun and human rights defender Yolanda Cerón Delgado in front of a church in Tumaco, Nariño. On September 20, Juan Manuel Corzo, the director of the attorney general's investigative unit in the city of Cúcuta, Norte de Santander, was shot and killed as he drove with his mother. At the time, Corzo was investigating several killings of colleagues. On October 17, Julian Rodríguez Benítez, a member of CREDHOS, a human rights group, was killed in Barrancabermeja, Santander. Also in 2001, Miguel Ignacio Lora, Yolanda Paternina, Carlos Arturo Pinto, María del Rosario, and Maria del Rosario Rojas Silva were killed. All had investigated paramilitary or guerilla activities.

In October 2001, human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa was found shot to death in her Mexico City office. A note left by her side warned members of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, where Ochoa had worked for several years, that the same could happen to them.

Aceh province experienced the loss of at least seven human rights defenders over the past year. On December 6, 2000, four workers for the Rehabilitation Action for Torture Victims of Aceh (RATA) were stopped outside Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, and abducted by a group of armed soldiers and civilians. Three of them were extrajudicially executed. On February 28, Muhamad Efendi Malikon, the secretary of the human rights organization Care Forum for Human Rights (Forum Peduli HAM-Aceh Timur) was killed in Peukan Langsa village, East Aceh. On March 29, Suprin Sulaiman, a lawyer with Koalist-HAM in South Aceh was killed after accompanying his client to a police interrogation session. On September 8, Yusuf Usman, also a member of Forum Peduli HAM-Aceh Timur, was killed. On October 3, the body of an Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) volunteer, Jafar Syehdo, known as Dabra, from Bireun, Aceh was discovered shot in North Aceh. The PMI was the lead agency responsible for removing the bodies of those killed in the conflict and helping return them to their families.

In India, in November 2000, T. Puroshottam, the joint secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) was stabbed to death by a group of unidentified men. In February 2001, Azam Ali, the district secretary of the Nalgonda branch of APCLC was killed by two sword-wielding youths.

In Uzbekistan, Shovruk Ruzimuradov, an activist in the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, died in custody, apparently tortured to death by police. Officers arrested forty-four-year-old Ruzimuradov on June 15 in southwestern Uzbekistan and held him incommunicado for some twenty-two days before returning his corpse to his family on July 7. In June, Viktor Popkov, a Russian human rights defender, died of wounds inflicted when his car was shot at in Chechnya.


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