Human Rights Watch
Monthly Email Update
March 2004

1. Tunisia: Putting Bush’s Initiative on the Line
2. Colombia: Ensuring Rights in Demobilization
3. Slovakia: Curtailing Abusers’ Arms Supply
4. Rwanda: Reflecting on the Genocide, 10 Years Later
5. Become a Member or Make a Contribution

The Human Rights Watch monthly email update highlights the impact of our work around the world, as well as recent campaigns. It does not list everything we produce or on which we work. For the latest information from Human Rights Watch, visit our home page at http://hrw.org. Past monthly updates are archived at http://hrw.org/update/

Tunisia: Putting Bush’s Initiative on the Line

U.S. President George W. Bush hosts a meeting with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the White House on February 18, 2004. © 2004 Reuters Limited

An ally in U.S. antiterrorism efforts, Tunisia’s president was the first Arab leader invited to the White House after President Bush announced plans to promote democracy in the Middle East. Human Rights Watch told Bush that the credibility of his project was on the line, and urged him to tell President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali that Tunisia’s policies of repression were incompatible with his initiative for democracy in the region.

“Tunisia bills itself as a moderate Muslim nation,” said Joe Stork, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division. “But there is nothing moderate in the way authorities repress nearly all forms of dissent.”

Ben Ali, who came to power in 1987 and has been reelected by an official tally of more than 99% of the vote, carries out its repression of dissent. Human Rights Watch has documented how human rights defenders are harassed and assaulted in Tunisia. Tunisian prisons hold hundreds of political prisoners, and the judiciary lacks independence.

Apart from a few low-circulation magazines, none of the Tunisian print or broadcast media offer critical coverage of government policies—and none of them covered President Bush’s public rebuke to Ben Ali, which Human Rights Watch and other rights organizations had pushed for.

“The President emphasized to President Ben Ali his desire for Tunisia to move ahead in areas such as press freedom, the rights of Tunisians to organize and work peacefully for reform, the need for free and competitive elections, and equal justice under law,” the White House press secretary announced after the two leaders met on February 18.

During a visit to Tunis in December, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had urged political reforms and greater openness in Tunisia. When Ben Ali visited the State Department a day before meeting with Bush, Powell spelled out his concerns.

“I also mentioned to the President that we had some continuing concerns with respect to political reform, with respect to media access and other similar issues where I think Tunisia could do more,” Powell said after the meeting. “And in a spirit of friendship, I laid out those items to him.”

Find out more about human rights in Tunisia at http://hrw.org/doc/?t=mideast&c=tunisi

Colombia: Ensuring Rights in Demobilization

Members of a paramilitary group in Colombia. © 2004 Reuters Limited

In Colombia’s armed conflict, Human Rights Watch has documented how paramilitary groups have been responsible for massacres and other serious human rights violations. So when Colombia asked the Organization of American States to lend its legitimacy to a paramilitary demobilization, Human Rights Watch lobbied the organization’s members to ensure that the proposed OAS mission included human rights conditions.

Human Rights Watch’s role at the OAS on February 10 was groundbreaking: this was the first time that any nongovernmental organization was allowed to address the OAS Permanent Council and officially present its position. After intense negotiations, OAS countries agreed to revise the resolution authorizing the mission to include key human rights components. The resolution established a central role for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a highly independent body that is eager to take on this role.

“The OAS resolution shows that even if things start off badly, they can be straightened out,” José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division, explained in an interview with the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. “Any member state—whether it’s Mexico, the United States or Argentina—could object if the process doesn’t comply with international legal obligations toward human rights.”

Human Rights Watch's efforts blocked an attempt by OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that would have committed the OAS to a mere “verification” role—with no say over the terms of the negotiation. Human Rights Watch argued that this would have lent the process legitimacy it does not merit.

President Uribe has pushed for a virtual “get out of jail” free card for paramilitary leaders who have committed crimes against humanity. A bill defeated in Congress last year would have allowed paramilitaries who have committed atrocities to avoid a single day of imprisonment in exchange for cash payments.

Read more about human rights in Colombia at http://hrw.org/doc?t=americas&c=colomb

Slovakia: Curtailing Abusers’ Arms Supply

Armed rebels walk down the road leading to Liberia’s second city Buchanan. International arms smugglers took advantage of lax controls in Slovakia in 2000 and 2001 to arrange a scheme to repair combat helicopters in Slovakia for illegal export to Liberia, a country under a United Nations embargo. © 2002 Reuters Limited

The European Union and NATO are set to expand this spring by adding several countries in Central and Eastern Europe. But some of these aspiring member countries have a record of supplying arms to human rights abusers in conflict zones. Human Rights Watch used European enlargement as leverage to draw attention to arms trading practices and create pressure for reform in accession countries like Slovakia.

Slovakia has been a source of arms supplies to regions of conflict marked by gross human rights abuses and violations of the laws of war, particularly African countries like Liberia, Uganda and Angola. At the same time, Slovakia has been linked to illegal arms deals that violate international embargoes.

The Slovak government came to understand that doubts about its ability to prevent illicit arms trafficking could damage its prospects for joining NATO and the EU, so it made a serious effort to tighten controls. It revised its arms trade law in mid-2002, but this reform fell short of what was needed. Since Slovakia has continued to engage in arms trade with human rights abusers, its regulatory controls need further tightening.

“There’s a loophole in the law that makes it possible to use Slovakia as a transit country to ship weapons without needing government permission,” said Lisa Misol, Human Rights Watch’s arms trade researcher.

In the Slovakian capital Bratislava, Human Rights Watch on February 10 released a comprehensive report documenting the range of problems with the country’s controls and the human rights consequences, and tracing efforts to rein in the trade.

Human Rights Watch’s advocacy efforts with the Slovak government included discussions with officials from the ministries of economy and foreign affairs, parliament and the country’s defense industry. Since then, a member of parliament has expressed interest in taking up one of Human Rights Watch’s key recommendations: the repeal of the special legal exemption that permits arms to transit through Slovakia without a license.

A coalition of Slovak civil society groups, which helped Human Rights Watch launch its report, recently met with the Slovak deputy foreign minister to urge the government to support a proposed international arms trade treaty that contains strong human rights and humanitarian law protections.

Read more about arms and human rights at http://hrw.org/doc/?t=arms

Rwanda: Reflecting on the Genocide, 10 Years Later

A memorial at the Nyamata church in central Rwanda that holds the remains of victims of the 1994 genocide. © 2002 Reuters Limited

Ten years ago, on April 7, the killings began in Rwanda. Within three months, the genocide claimed the lives of at least half a million Tutsi, as well as Hutu who refused to take part in the massacres. Human Rights Watch’s Alison DesForges, a Human Rights Watch researcher, pressed the international community to take steps to halt the slaughter, and continues to work to bring the perpetrators to justice. DesForges, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the genocide, discusses Rwanda—then and now.

How is life in Rwanda right now? How are Rwandans coping ten years later?

Genocide and coming to terms with genocide are almost unimaginable for us, but people do cope and in extraordinary ways. They are rebuilding their lives. However, the problem of justice remains. The government has not been able to bring about people accused of committing crimes during the genocide.

They initiated a popular justice system known as gacaca, but it’s not working and people are not participating because life is still so miserable. We’re talking about a nation where 95 percent of the people are farmers, where it’s hard to take a whole week off without pay to participate in the gacaca.

What can concerned citizens do as we reflect on the anniversary of the genocide?

People who are serious about understanding the situation need to inform themselves— about Rwanda of course—but also about other serious conflicts underway in Africa today: Congo, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire.

In Rwanda itself, practical assistance is needed for children’s funds and widows’ funds. But I think Americans should be urging their government to launch an investigation, to see why it took the position it took. Why did Washington fail to respond to the genocide? The French initiated an inquiry, so did the Belgians and the Organization of African Unity—the only player that hasn’t done anything is the United States.

Ten years later, what progress has been made in the effort to bring the genocide’s perpetrators to justice?

About three-quarter of the leading civilian and military people accused of genocide are now either on trial, or have been tried, or will be tried. But there are problems with the speed and the thoroughness of their trials. The cases against them have not always been as solid as we envisioned.

The international community clearly failed in its response to the genocide in 1994. What’s its current attention toward Rwanda?

Well, as was the case in ’94, concern is primarily with the national interest of the major operators. They worry about their own national politics and about the short term. They reason, “Don’t let it explode as long as I’m here. Let it happen when someone else is on the Rwanda desk.”

You lost many friends and colleagues in Rwanda. How are you coping with life now?

My kind of anguish is just nothing compared to the anguish of the Rwandan people who I deal with everyday. That’s the key to keeping it all in balance.

I am doing a lot of speaking, trying to remind people of what happened and raise their consciousness. I also continue to be involved in prosecution with the international tribunal and national court prosecution.

Our book on the history of the genocide will be reissued. Now it will also be available in the local language, Kinyarwanda. The remarkable thing is that it will be distributed free to schools, universities and the judiciary inside Rwanda.

Find out more about human rights in Rwanda at http://hrw.org/doc/?t=africa&c=rwanda

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