Fatal Shootings By U.S. Border Patrol Increase Sharply
(New York, September 30, 1998) -- Human Rights Watch today expressed serious concern over fatal shootings by U.S. Border Patrol agents stationed along the southern borders of California and Arizona. During the past three weeks, three border-crossers have been fatally shot after allegedly holding rocks in a threatening manner, according to the Border Patrol.
Serb
Police Attacked Convoy of 250 Vehicles
(New York, September 30, 1998) — Serbian police forces
attacked a convoy of civilian vehicles and tractors on Tuesday after detaining
civilians who had fled their village, Human Rights Watch reported
today. A Human Rights Watch researcher saw the bodies of four ethnic Albanian
men who had been killed outside Vranic, a village near Urosedac in
southwestern Kosovo, including one person who was
apparently executed at close range and another whose
face had been mutilated.
Eighteen
Civilians Massacred In Kosovo Fores
(New York, September 29, 1998) — Today Human Rights Watch
reported that Serb forces massacred an extended family of eighteen ethnic
Albanian civilians, including five children, in a forest in the Drenica
region of Kosovo on September 26. Human Rights Watch researchers on the
scene saw seven of the bodies, all of which had been shot at close range
in the head. Several of the corpses had been mutilated.
Human
Rights Watch Condemns Prohibition of Human Rights March and Meeting in
Morocco
(New York, September 22, 1998) — Human Rights Watch today
condemned the bans imposed by Moroccan authorities on a march and meeting
that were to have been held yesterday in Rabat in support of human rights
activists in Tunisia. The events, long planned by Moroccan and regional
human rights organizations in solidarity with imprisoned Tunisian activist
Khemaïs Ksila, were prohibited by a written order from the police
citing security reasons.
Clinton
Urged To Take Tough Stand With Nigerian Leader
(New York, September 22, 1998) — Human Rights Watch today
urged President Bill Clinton to raise urgent human rights concerns in his
September 23 meeting with General Abdulsalami Abubakar, when the new Nigerian
head of state visits New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
Women
Raped in Prisons Face Retaliation
(New York, September 21 1998) — In a report
released today, Human Rights Watch documents how women inmates who
have been raped by guards in Michigan prisons are suffering retaliation
from their attackers.
Crypto
Controls Threaten Human Rights
(New York, September 18, 1998) -- Human Rights Watch
today urged an international conference on technology, now meeting in Vienna,
not to expand controls on encryption technologies. The organization said
that cryptographic products are critical to the ability of human rights
defenders around the world to transmit sensitive information without detection
by repressive governments.
HRW
Calls For Formal U.N. Probe of Algerian Massacres
(New York, September 16, 1998) — Human Rights Watch today
called on the Algerian government to allow the United Nations to conduct
a proper investigation into the massacres that have killed thousands of
women, men and children in recent years.
No
Breakthrough Yet on Human Rights in China
(New York, September 16, 1998) — Human Rights Watch said
today that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary
Robinson, had raised all the right issues in her visit to China, but said
it was premature to characterize the visit as a breakthrough.
Rights
Group Criticizes Closure of Kosovo Montenegro Boundary
(New York, September 16, 1998) — Human Rights Watch today
criticized the decision of the Montenegrin government to deny those fleeing
the fighting in Kosovo entry into Montenegro.
Human
Rights Watch Urges Sudan Factory Inspection
(New York, Sept. 16, 1998) — Human Rights Watch today
urged the United States to support a United Nations chemical weapons inspection
in Sudan.
HRW
to Diplomats in Damascus: Push for Prisoner's Immediate Release
(New York, September 15, 1998) — Human Rights Watch today
called for urgent action to save the life of imprisoned Syrian dissident
Nizar Nayouf,
a 36-year-old writer and human rights activist suffering from Hodgkin's
disease in a Damascus military prison.
UN
Urged to Prevent More Killings as Taliban Offensive Continues
(September 14, 1998) — Human Rights Watch today warned
that the Taliban's current military offensive in the Hazarajat region of
central Afghanistan could result in the torture and deaths of many more
ethnic Hazaras, a Shi'ite minority whom the Taliban has targeted in the
past. Aid workers in Pakistan say that thousands of Hazaras were killed
when the Taliban took the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif last month.
Human
Rights Should Be High on Agenda in U.K.-Bahrain Talks
(Arabic Version)
(New York, September 11, 1998) — As a top British minister
prepares to travel to Bahrain, Human Rights Watch urged that the disturbing
human rights situation in that country be on the agenda of all high level
meetings with Bahraini officials. Derek Fatchett, the U.K.’s Minister of
State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, is visiting Bahrain for two
days starting Monday, September 14.
Human
Rights Watch Condemns Detention Practices of U.S. INS
(Washington, D.C., September 9, 1998) — In a report released
today, 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.
HRW
Condemns Detention of an Iranian Dissident
(New York, September 9, 1998) — Human Rights Watch today
condemned the imprisonment of Mr. Abas Amir-Entezam, the former Iranian
deputy-prime minister, following the apparent enforcement of a previously
suspended life sentence.
Sanctions
Legislation Threatens Important U.S. Foreign Policy Tool
(September 9, 1998) — Pending legislation poses a threat
to effective U.S. foreign policy, warned Human Rights Watch executive director
Kenneth Roth, in testimony presented Tuesday, September 8, to the U.S.
Senate Task Force on Economic Sanctions.
Arrests
in Burma Mark New Clampdown
(September 8, 1998)-- Human Rights Watch is gravely concerned
about the reported arrests in Burma of 220 members of the opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD), including 60 elected members of parliament.
According to the NLD, the arrest of democracy supporters began in the capital
of Rangoon in the late hours of Sunday evening, September 6, and continued
through Monday and Tuesday in provincial areas as well. As yet, no charges
have been reported against those detained, and the party's leader, Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, has not so far been detained.
Official
Denials of Indonesian Rapes Hinder Investigation
(September 8, 1998)-- Human Rights Watch today called
on senior Indonesian government officials to immediately cease efforts
to discredit reports of rapes of ethnic Chinese women during riots in Jakarta
in May. Instead, they should work to create a climate where victims of
sexual violence might be more willing to come forward. In a new report
titled "The Damaging
Debate On Rapes of Ethnic Chinese Women," the organization said the
debate raging on whether or not rapes had occurred was obscuring other
issues, including the extent to which the May rioting was organized, the
fact that sexual violence other than rape occurred, and the need to make
Indonesia a society where people of all ethnicities felt secure.
Indonesia:
Soeharto-Era Abuses Must Go
(Jakarta, September 4)--In a major new report
released today, Human Rights Watch warns that if the current political
opening in Indonesia is not followed by legal and institutional protections
for basic rights, the entire reform effort could unravel. The new report,
"Academic Freedom
in Indonesia: Dismantling Soeharto-Era Barriers," is a study of the
legal and institutional mechanisms used by the Soeharto government to silence
campus critics, arbitrarily limit public debate on pressing social issues,
and stymie intellectual inquiry.
HRW
Applauds Rwanda Rape Verdict
(New York, September 2, 1998) — History was made today
when the U.N. International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) found former mayor, Jean-Paul
Akayesu, guilty of nine counts of genocide, crimes against humanity
and war crimes. The verdict is the first handed down by the Rwanda Tribunal;
the first conviction for genocide by an international court; the first
time an international court has punished sexual violence in a civil war;
and the first time that rape was found to be an act of genocide to destroy
a group.
Rwanda
Tribunal To Rule on Akayesu Case
(Montreal, September 1, 1998) — Tomorrow, the U.N.
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will issue a historic
judgment in the case of Jean-Paul
Akayesu, who is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and
crimes committed in an internal armed conflict.
Vietnam:
HRW Welcomes Release of Political Prisoners
(New York, September 1, 1998) -- Human Rights Watch today
welcomed the recent release of political prisoners in Vietnam, including
prominent dissidents Dr. Doan Viet Hoat and Dr. Nguyen Dan Que.
Palestinian
Authority Should Halt Executions, Review Unfair Trials
(New York, August 31, 1998) — In a letter to President
Yasir Arafat, Human Rights Watch today condemned the executions of Ra'id
and Mohammad Abu Sultan, and called upon Arafat not to ratify any pending
or future death penalty sentences. The executions mark the first time the
death penalty has been applied in the Palestinian Authority.
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