Reports

Heightened political tension has been characterized by physical attacks on journalists critical of the former Meciar government. HRW/Helsinki urges the interim government to give special consideration to the concerns outlined in this report and to disassociate itself from the media policies of its predecessor in order to create an environment in which the independent press can flourish.

In late 1993, a new armed faction emerged in Liberia known as the Liberian Peace Council (LPC), and engaged Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) in combat. While both are responsible for severe human rights abuses, the LPC stepped up its campaign against civilians, especially those it considers members of the NPFL.

Human Rights Abuses of Non-Serbs in Kosovo, Sandzak & Vojvodina

Under former President Aylwin's four-year “transitional” administration, Chile took notable steps toward consolidating democracy, reestablishing civil and individual rights, and healing the wounds caused by decades of political strife and gross human rights violations under military rule.

Although ethnic Macedonians in northern Greece make up a large minority with their own language and culture, their internationally-recognized human rights and even their existence are vigorously denied by the Greek government. Free expression is restricted; several Macedonians have been prosecuted and convicted for the peaceful expression of their views.

In April 1994, tens of thousands of workers took to the streets in Medan, Indonesia, demanding higher wages, improved benefits and freedom of association. Notable for their size and anti-Chinese violence, the protests underscored the Indonesian government's urgent need to address worker's rights issues.

The bloody conflict in the Indian state of Punjab drew to a close in 1993, but the restoration of an elected government has not meant the restoration of the rule of law. To the contrary, the Punjab police continue to torture, kill or cause their victims to disappear with impunity.

The mysterious death of President Habyarimana of Rwanda in April 1994 was the pretext for Hutu extremists from the late president's entourage to launch a campaign of genocide against the Tutsi, a minority that made up about 15 percent of the population. The extremists also killed Hutu willing to cooperate with Tutsi in forming a more democratic government.

Iraq’s 1988 Anfal campaign of extermination against the Kurdish people living within its borders resulted in the death of at least 50,000 and as many as 100,000 people, many of them women and children. This book, co-published with Yale University Press, investigates the Anfal campaign and concludes that this campaign constituted genocide against the Kurds.

President Clinton's policy of disregarding fundamental human rights issues to resolve Haiti's political crisis, combined with his inhumane and illegal practice of summarily returning Haitian refugees, has contributed to a human rights disaster that has tarnished his presidency and discredited its stated commitment to democracy and human rights around the world.

Since 1989, tens of thousands of black Mauritanians have been forcibly expelled and hundreds more have been tortured or killed. An undeclared military occupation of the Senegal River Valley — where many of the blacks live — subjects those who remain to harsh repression.

The Greek government views the term "Macedonian" as a geographic term that describes all Greek citizens living in the Macedonian region in northern Greece.

In detailing gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Bosanski Samac, this report identifies six war criminals — known as Stevo Todorovic, Slavko and Makso, Goran, Lugar, and Cika Tralija — and calls for immediate action by the international tribunal on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

As El Salvador winds up the campaign for presidential, legislative, and municipal elections scheduled for March 20, 1994, no issue represents a greater threat to the peace process than the rise in political murders of leaders and grassroots activists belonging to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).

Researched and written prior to the 1994 elections in South Africa, this report describes how the former South African government failed to fulfill its obligations to protect its citizens from violence and guarantee the exercise of their political rights in two homelands.