Reports

Iranians voted on March 8, 1996, to elect 270 members of the parliament, or Majles, in an election process that severely limited citizen participation. Parliamentary elections could represent a real contest for power in Iran’s political system—but only if arbitrary bans on candidates and other constraints on political life are lifted.

Political repression in Tibet has increased sharply since 1994, and there are now more political prisoners in custody there than at any time since 1990.

The publication of Death By Default on January 7, 1996 was followed by several weeks of intense coverage of the report by the international news media.

The Dayton accord offered the promise of a lasting peace because it incorporated both military enforcement and strong mechanisms to protect human rights and ensure accountability for past abuses, including the High Representative, the International Police Task Force, the OSCE's human rights and election monitoring mission, and the Office of the Ombudsperson.

Areas of northwestern Bosnia under Bosnian Serb control were the site of a brutal endgame of “ethnic cleansing,” murder, and rape, even as a cease-fire and the Dayton accord were negotiated. In the fall of 1995, more than 6,000 non-Serbs were systematically and brutally driven from their homes.

In February 1995, Pres. Zedillo ordered a crackdown on the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). As the Mexican army fought to regain territory in which the Zapatistas had operated since January 1994, federal and state police worked in tandem to arrest men and women accused of leading or supporting the Zapatistas.

In updating our 1994 report, Arms Trade & Violations of the Laws of War in Angola, we found that despite the signing of the Lusaka Protocol between the Angolan government and UNITA that led to a cease-fire, sporadic fighting continued in 1995.

Throughout the world, thousands of children are used as soldiers in armed conflicts. Although international law forbids recruiting children under fifteen as soldiers, such young children may be found in government armies and, more commonly, in armed rebel groups.

China’s claim to guarantee the “right to subsistence” conceals a secret world of starvation, disease, and unnatural death a world into which thousands of Chinese citizens disappear each year.

The homicide rate in Rio de Janeiro tripled in the last 15 years and public concern grew apace. The press, prominent civic leaders, and politicians focused particularly on violence related to criminal gangs and drug trafficking. Unfortu-nately, law enforcement efforts to control crime relied on flagrant and numerous human rights abuses.

Tens of thousands of Guatemalans fled systematic army repression between 1980 and 1983, flooding southern Mexico with refugees. Hundreds of thousands more were estimated to be displaced internally. Recent cases of state violence against returning refugees cast serious doubts on the Guatemalan government's commitment to ensure safe repatriation and foster the rule of law in rural areas.

In the last two years, the Chinese government has issued new directives requiring all congregations to register with religious authorities, stepped up pressure on evangelists, and tightened control on contact with foreigners and distribution of religious materials. Those suspected of linking religion to political activity have been singled out for the harshest treatment.

The new South African government has pledged to ensure women a full and equal role in every aspect of the economy and society. Yet South African women continue to face extraordinarily high levels of violence which prevent them from enjoying the rights they are guaranteed under the new dispensation.

Since 1984, the government of Turkey has waged an increasingly bitter war with insurgents of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). To date, the toll is estimated at over 19,000 deaths, including some 2,000 death-squad killings of suspected PKK sympathizers, two million internally displaced, and more than 2,200 villages destroyed mostly by Turkish security forces. In an effort to root out PKK fighters and sympathizers from southeast Turkey, the government has adopted increasingly brutal counterinsurgency measures, in clear violation of international law. The PKK, for its part, has also systematically engaged in violations such as summary executions and indiscriminate fire.This report documents the Turkish security forces’ violations of human rights, and their reliance on U.S. and NATO-supplied weapons in doing so. Drawing on investigations of some 30 incidents that occurred between 1992 and 1995, the report links specific weapons systems to individual incidents of Turkish violations. Supplemented by interviews with former Turkish soldiers, U.S. officials and defense experts, the report concludes that U.S. weapons, as well as those supplied by other NATO members, are regularly used.

Covering the human rights situations in 11 of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries, the evidence presented here suggests that economic growth alone has not led to greater human rights protection. Yet human rights was the issue that would not go away for Asia in 1995 as it became an economic issue, a determinant of aid and an irritant to trade from Burma to Indonesia.