UPCOMING
EVENTS
Thursday,
April 26, 7:30 PM. Monthly
Meeting 1052 E.
Del Mar. Avenue, Top Floor.
Tuesday, May 8,
7:30 PM. Letter-writing
Meeting at the Athenaeum. Corner of California & Hill in the
basement recreation area. An
informal meeting, a great place for first-timers to ask
questions!
Sunday,
May 20, 7:30 PM. Rights
Readers Human Rights Book Discussion Group at Borders Books on S. Lake Avenue. This month we
discuss Earth Odyssey: by Mark
Hertsgaard.(see below).
Tuesday,
May 29 Save the date for a special event featuring two
journalists and
torture survivors from Southern Africa. Fred M'membe,Editor in Chief, The
Post, Zambia and recipient
of the Committee
for the Protection of Journalists Press Freedom award (1995), and Ray
Choto,Chief Writer, The Standard, Zimbabwe
recipient of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression International Press
Freedom award (1999) will be our guests for a very special evening! Details in
the next newsletter…
RIGHTS
READERS
Human
Rights Book Discussion Group
Borders Books & Music
475 South Lake Avenue, Pasadena
Sunday, May 20, 7:30
PM
|
|
Earth
Odyssey:
|
to the most
important question of our time: is the future of the human species at risk?
Combining first-rate reportage with irresistible storytelling, Mark Hertsgaard
has written an essential--and ultimately hopeful--book about the uncertain fate
of humankind.
"For
readers who want to know what it is really like on the ground and around the
world to suffer the silent violence of environmental devastation, Mark
Hertsgaard's earth odyssey is a gripping tour guide. For readers who are taken
in by corporatist screeds that nature is cleansing itself, earth odyssey stands
like a sequoia of empirical rebuke. A book for all classes and masses."
--Ralph Nader
"One
of America's
finest reporters, asks one of the few questions really worth asking: will our
species survive the environmental depredations committed by global capitalism
and heavy industrial socialism--and, if so, how? Earth odyssey provides a
sober, compassionate assessment of our chances." --Barbara
Ehrenreich
JUST EARTH
NETWORK
Keep up the pressure for Rodolfo and
Teodoro!
Amnesty
International has officially declared Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro
Cabrera Garcia prisoners of conscience. This month we keep up the pressure by
writing to the Mexican ambassador. On December 1, 2000 the newly elected
administration of President Vicente Fox took power. This provides an
opportunity for President Fox to fulfill his commitment to make human rights
and the environment a priority of his administration. Amnesty International
continues to be very concerned for the health and safety of environmental
activists Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia. The two men were
detained by soldiers on May 2nd, 1999. Both have reportedly been beaten by
soldiers to force them to confess to trumped up drug and weapons charges by the
military.
Call
on the Mexican government to immediately and unconditionally release Montiel
and Cabrera. Call on the Mexican
government to immediately and impartially investigate the torture allegations.
Urge that confessions extracted under torture not be used as evidence against
the men. Request of the Mexican government that those responsible for these
violations be promptly brought to justice. Call on the Mexican government to adopt recommendations made
by the International Court of Human Rights to combat torture, including an end
to the impunity enjoyed by torturers.
Patterns
of human rights abuses in Mexico have created a hostile climate for
environmental activists. International pressure on the Mexican government is
one of the keys to assuring that the rights of environmental activists are
respected. Because of its trading status with the US and other nations, Mexico
cannot afford to have a spotty human rights record.
Call
on the Mexican government to adhere to its commitment to the resolution on
Human Rights Defenders in the Americas, adopted by the General Assembly of the
Organization of American States (OAS) on 7 June 1999, which states in point
2:"To urge member states to persist in their efforts to provide Human
Rights Defenders with the necessary guarantees and facilities to continue
freely carrying out their work of promoting and protecting human rights, at the
national and/or regional levels, in accordance with internationally recognized
principles and agreements."
Ambassador Jesus Reyes-Heroles
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington,
DC 20006
EARTH DAY BONUS
ACTION
Find out about the Right to Know Campaign, which aims to help
communities defend themselves against the increasing power of global
companies. SIGN THE PETITION
urging President Bush to support disclosure standards for global companies
(there’s a downloadable version too).
PRISONER OF
CONSCIENCE
Ngawang Pekar, Tibetan
Monk
Our
group remains committed to working for the release of prisoner of
conscience (POC)
Ngawang Pekar (naw-wan pee-kar), a Tibetan Buddhist monk. In 1989, he
was arrested
by Chinese authorities and sentenced to 8 years in prison for participating in
a peaceful demonstration in the city of Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, in
support of Tibetan independence. Shortly before he was due to be released, he
was sentenced to an additional 6 years in March of 1996 for allegedly trying to
smuggle out a list of other prisoners to international human rights
organizations.
About
the only news directly related to Tibet this month comes from the US
State Department.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, while eliminating 23 out of 55 special envoys,
representatives, and advisor positions in a move to downsize the department,
has fortunately decided to retain the position of Special Coordinator for
Tibetan Issues, a post last held by Julia Taft. As of yet, it is not known who
will be serving as the new Special Coordinator.
In
more general news, on March 27 China formally notified the UN that it
had ratified
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, though it
does not consider itself bound by the clause specifying that workers have the
right to form independent trade unions. Meanwhile, on April 11 China executed
at least 89 convicted criminals, an action publicly condemned by Amnesty
International.
Everyone
is familiar with the outcry raised over the detention of the crew in the recent
spy plane incident. However, what has received little attention is the fact
that a number of other US permanent residents or citizens have recently been
detained in China. US permanent residents Gao Zhan, a sociologist,
and her husband,
along with their 5-year-old son (a US citizen), were detained at the Beijing
airport on February 11 while returning to the US after visiting relatives. The
three were held incommunicado and separately for 26 days until Gao's husband
and son were released on March 8 and allowed to fly home. Since that time, Gao
has reportedly "confessed" to spying and is thus likely to receive a
lengthy prison sentence. Also in February, Hua Di, a Stanford University
researcher, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of
"leaking state secrets," and since February 25 Li Shaomin, a US
citizen and scholar based in Hong Kong, has been held on unspecified charges
after crossing the border into mainland China. In December 2000, Teng Chunyan,
a permanent resident of the US and member of Falun Gong, returned to China and
was sentenced to three years imprisonment on a charge of "providing secret
information to foreigners and people across the border."
As
stated last month, we received the go ahead to try writing directly to Ngawang
Pekar, so this month we request that you send a brief letter or postcard to
Pekar wishing him well. Please keep your message on a personal level and don't
mention politics, your feelings about the charges he was convicted on, anything
about Amnesty, etc. Though it may be doubtful he'll be allowed to receive our
letters, one never knows - we can only hope that, as he apparently speaks
English, he can also read it! Even if he never receives the letters, with luck
he'll at least hear about them and gain a boost to his morale. Please send your
letters/postcards to:
Ngawang
Pekar (layname: Paljor)
Xizang
Zizhiqu Di Yi Jianyu
Lasashi
850003
Xizang
Zizhiqu
People's
Republic of China
At
a later date we'll be providing a translation of the above address into Chinese
characters on our website which you'll then be able to print out and attach to
future mailings. Remember to include your name and mailing address to enable a
reply and that overseas postage for a normal letter is now 80 cents and a
postcard is 70 cents. PLEASE notify the Group 22 Coordinator if you
receive a reply.
LETTER
COUNT
Prisoner of Conscience (Ngawang Pekar): 2
Death Penalty: &nb
sp;
1
Campaign Against Torture
8
Government Action Network
4
Urgent Actions: &nb
sp;
16
Total: &nb
sp;
31
Want to add your letters to the total? Get in touch with lucas.kamp@jpl.nasa.gov
CAMPAIGN AGAINST TORTURE
Rape behind a wall of impunity in
the Phillipines
Two
Manila police officers arrested an 18-year-old woman late at night on suspicion
of vagrancy. Instead of taking her to the police station the officers
reportedly forced her into a jeep parked near the station and, together with a
third man, raped her. They were discovered by the owner of the jeep, also a
police officer.
A
17-year-old detainee in a provincial jail accused the warden and 11 guards of
raping her and threatening her with guns. Her attempts to complain were ignored
until she was admitted to a clinic, suffering from a sexually transmitted
disease. Three officers from a drugs unit arrested a 24-year-old woman in
Manila. The officers released her without charge, reportedly after forcing her
to perform oral sex inside a police car, threatening her and robbing her of a
large amount of cash, which they ordered her to withdraw from her bank account.
The police officers, who were reassigned to new jobs after the incident, were
reported to be still at liberty several weeks later despite facing charges of
rape and robbery.
These
disturbing stories of rape and sexual abuse by law enforcement officials are
just a few of the many cases reported in the Philippine press. In June 2000 a
former senator stated that 12 police officers had been accused of rape in the
previous 10 months. Lack of systematic monitoring makes it difficult to
estimate just how widespread the problem is, but women lawyers and
non-governmental organizations working for women's rights in the
Philippines agree
that there is an urgent need for action to protect women in custody. Women
detained by the police have also reported being subjected to other forms of
torture or ill-treatment, including threats, slaps, punches and kicks. Those
particularly at risk are the most marginalized members of society: suspected
prostitutes, street children (many of whom flee home to escape abuse in the
family), drug users and the poor. In many cases, police use the anti-vagrancy
law - legislation that discriminates against the poor and women in particular -
to extort money and sexually abuse women. Sexual harassment and violence,
including rape, also occurs in jails.
If
a woman is raped by a police officer, or indeed any man in a position of power,
she faces huge obstacles to lodging a complaint. The fear of reprisals prevents
many women from speaking out, and victims are known to have been pressured into
withdrawing complaints. Many people in the Philippines are fearful of a police
force notorious for involvement in criminal activities, corruption and the
torture of criminal suspects, and do not expect complaints against the police
to be taken seriously. Cases which do go to court can take many years to be
concluded and judges sometimes dismiss cases partly on the basis that the
victim was sexually experienced. A leading newspaper reported in1999 that a
male judge had acquitted a police officer charged with raping a 13-year-old
girl detained for theft. In his ruling the judge reportedly called the girl
"a woman in a minor child's body, old in the ways of the world beyond her
years... admittedly she is no longer a virgin... it is possible that she
concocted this lurid tale of lust and rape".
In
1997 three police officers were sentenced to death for raping a pregnant woman
and several others are reported to be facing prosecution. Yet death sentences
and executions have had little or no impact on the reported incidence of rape
by law enforcement officials or within the broader community. Many women's
organizations in the Philippines believe that the use of the death penalty -
which is in itself a violation of fundamental human rights - actually hinders
rather than encourages successful prosecutions.
Recommended
Action. Please write, expressing concern at reports that women
have been subjected to rape and other sexual violence in custody and urging the
authorities to: send a clear and public message to the police and all other law
enforcement officials emphasizing that rape and sexual violence in custody
always constitutes torture or ill-treatment, and that the perpetrators of such
offences will be brought to justice and face appropriate penalties; ensure that female security personnel
are present during the interrogation of women detainees, and that all male
staff who supervise women detainees are accompanied by female staff; introduce
an independent complaints mechanism for women detainees who report rape and
sexual violence or harassment, and take effective steps to protect them from
retaliation; provide compensation and appropriate medical care to women
detainees who have been raped, sexually assaulted or ill-treated.
Appeals
to:
Secretary
of Interior and Local Government,
Department
of the Interior and Local Government,
EDSA
cnr. Mapagmahal St, Barangay, Pinyahan,
Diliman
1100,
Quezon
City, Philippines
Director
General, Philippine National Police,
National
Headquarters, Camp Crame,
EDSA,
cor. Santolan Road,
Quezon
City, Philippines
McVEIGH
EXECUTION
Action
for a moratorium on federal executions
A
38-year de facto moratorium on federal executions in the USA is due to come to
an end with the execution of Timothy McVeigh on 16 May 2001, unless President
George W. Bush imposes an official moratorium.
The
USA has executed more than 700 men and women since it resumed judicial killing
in 1977. All were convicted of murder under the laws of individual states. No
federal prisoner has been executed since Victor Feguer was hanged in 1963 for a
kidnapping. There are around 25 men on federal death row in Terre Haute. The US
Government can seek the death penalty in cases where there is a substantial
federal interest, such as the killing of a federal official, or murders which
take place on federal property.
Timothy
McVeigh is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in the US Penitentiary
in Terre Haute, Indiana, on 16 May. He was convicted in federal court in 1997
of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on 19
April 1995, in which 168 people were killed and more than 500 injured. He has
dropped his legal appeals against his death sentence and is not seeking
clemency from President Bush.
In
September 2000, the US Justice Department released the findings of a review
into the federal capital justice system which revealed widespread racial and
geographic disparities in the application of the federal death penalty (see
Memorandum to President Clinton: An appeal for human rights leadership as the
first federal execution looms, AMR 51/158/00, November 2000). These Justice
Department findings led President Clinton to issue a six-month stay of
execution for Juan Raul Garza, a Hispanic man scheduled to be lethally injected
on 12 December 2000 while the Justice Department conducted further analysis of
its review (see EXTRA 85/00, AMR 51/174/00, 14 November 2000 and update). As
one of his last acts in office, President Clinton also commuted the death
sentence of a federal prisoner, David Ronald Chandler, whose guilt was in
serious doubt (see EXTRA 03/01, AMR 51/008,2001, 12 January 2001 and
update).
The
unreliable, arbitrary and apparently discriminatory nature of the federal
capital justice system echoes its state-level counterpart, a lethal lottery
riddled with arbitrariness, discrimination and error. Since the Governor of
Illinois imposed a moratorium on executions in his state because of its record
of wrongful convictions in capital cases, domestic concern about the US death
penalty has reached unprecedented levels.
More
than 60 countries have abolished the death penalty since 1977. Today, as the
first US federal execution in almost four decades approaches, more than 100
countries have abandoned executions in law or practice. A measure of the global
progress towards abolition can also be found in the mandate of the
International Criminal Court. Set up to try the world's worst crimes -
genocide, torture, mass killing - the most severe penalty that the Court will
be able to impose is life imprisonment, subject to review after 25
years.
Amnesty
International opposes executions in all cases, without reservation, regardless
of the heinousness of the crime. The death penalty is a symptom of a culture of
violence, not a solution to it. By imitating and taking to refined, calculated
heights what it seeks to condemn - the deliberate taking of human life - the
state is allowing those who kill to set society's moral tone. The death penalty
offers no answers to the many questions that arise from violent crime, and
diverts energy and resources away from humane, constructive alternatives to
confronting this pressing social problem. It encourages feelings of vengeance,
division, intolerance, and hatred. It is an entirely destructive exercise with
no measurable societal benefit.
Executions
carry the official message that killing is an appropriate response to killing.
That is the same reasoning said to lie behind the carnage in Oklahoma City on
19 April 1995. The jurors at Timothy McVeigh's trial agreed among other things
that he believed the federal government was responsible for the deaths of over
70 people at the Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco, Texas, in 1993
following a siege by federal agents, and that federal agents murdered Sammy and
Vicki Weaver during a siege near Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 (see USA: Rights
for All, AMR 51/35/98, October 1998, page 25).
The
USA's increasingly isolated resort to this cruel, brutalizing and irrevocable
punishment is a matter which cries out for leadership at the highest level.
Because of the scale of the crime of which Timothy McVeigh was convicted,
national and international attention to his impending execution will be
enormous, in contrast to the scant coverage given to the majority of executions
since 1977. As such, the case provides President Bush with a singular
opportunity to announce to the widest possible audience that he will no longer
allow those who kill to set the moral tone, and that he will not allow federal
executions to resume at a time when more than half the countries of the world
have stopped executions and when domestic concern about the death penalty is at
unprecedented levels.
President
Bush can declare a moratorium on federal executions under Article II, Section
2, Clause 1, of the US Constitution which gives him the 'Power to Grant
Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United
States'.
RECOMMENDED
ACTION: Please send telegrams/faxes/express/airmail letters, in your own words,
drawing from the above and other arguments as you see fit. While expressing
sympathy for the victims of violent crime, urge President Bush not to allow
federal executions to resume after 38 years without them and to impose an
immediate moratorium with a view to leading his country away from the death
penalty.
APPEALS
TO:
President
George W. Bush
The
White House
1600
Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington,
DC 20500
Fax:
1 202 456 2461
E-mail:
president@whitehouse.gov
McVEIGH WEB TIP
Thanks to Joyce Wolf for this unique tip! It's a Swiftian short story based on a
McVeigh-like case.
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/tb01.htm
The author's home page is www.terrybisson.com
where you can read up on his work on the Mumia Abu-Jamal case
FREEDOM
WRITERS
Torture in Burundi/Disappearance
in Guatemala
Here are two letters on
behalf of women in Burundi and Guatemala. Send them
today!
Major
Pierre Buyoya
Président
de la République
BP
1870
Bujumbura
BURUNDI
Dear
Mr. President:
I
am concerned to learn about the detention without trial of six women, all of
whom were reportedly tortured by authorities shortly after their arrest. The
six women - Valérie Bukuru, Eliane Bukuru, Constance Singirankabo,
Fitina Barumbanzi, Sabine Ndayisimbiye and Jeanette Ndayisenga - were arrested
between 1997 and 1999 and have been detained without trial in Rumonge and
Bururi prisons. They are accused of collaborating with Hutu-dominated armed
opposition groups - mainly by allegedly providing food to them. Amnesty
International believes these women may be prisoners of conscience, arbitrarily
detained because their Hutu ethnic identity makes them
suspect.
Valérie
Bukuru, a farmer, was reportedly beaten and stabbed in the legs by gendarmes.
Fitina Barumbanzi, a street vendor, was allegedly beaten repeatedly
with electrical
cable by gendarmes, police and communal officials, leaving her unable to walk
for two months after her ordeal. Jeanette Ndayisenga was arrested and accused
of giving food to members of an armed opposition group, apparently because she
was carrying food when stopped at a roadblock. The Bururi State Prosecutor has
said that there are currently no resources to pursue investigations into
detainees' cases in the Bururi and Rumonge areas.
I
urge you to review these cases and to bring about the immediate and
unconditional release of these women if no substantive evidence exists to
support a recognizable criminal offense. I feel sure you will agree that these
allegations of torture require prompt and impartial investigations. I urge you
to ensure that those found responsible for torturing these women are brought to
justice.
I
thank you in advance for your assistance with this serious
matter.
Sincerely,
--------------------
Sr.
Byron Barrientos
Minister
of Interior
Ministro
de Gobernación
Ministerio
de Gobernación
6a
Avenida 4-64
Zona
4, Ciudad de Guatemala
GUATEMALA
Dear
Minister:
Mayra Angelina
Gutiérrez Hernández, a university lecturer and women's rights
activist, has not been seen since she left her daughter at a bus stop on April
7, 2000. Amnesty International believes that Ms Gutiérrez's
"disappearance"
was politically motivated. I am extremely concerned about the safety and
well-being of Mayra Gutiérrez.
Mayra
Gutiérrez helped prepare a report on illegal adoptions three years ago,
and was reportedly a major source of information for the Special Rapporteur on
the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The subsequent
report, issued in January 2000, was officially presented to the U.N. Commission
on Human Rights shortly before Ms. Gutiérrez went missing. It is now
known that Ms. Gutiérrez was listed on a military intelligence database
apparently compiled during the 1980s and made public in May 2000, a fact which
strengthens fears that her "disappearance" was politically
motivated.
It
is my understanding that the Guatemalan Human Rights Procurator, Julio Arango,
was given a special mandate by the Supreme Court to investigate Mayra
Gutiérrez's "disappearance," which enables him to enter into
civilian and military installations in order to try and determine her
whereabouts. I urge your government to extend this special mandate as long as
is necessary to determine the fate of Mayra Gutiérrez. I further urge
you to ensure that military officials and other relevant personnel cooperate
fully with the Procurator. I thank you in advance for your assistance with this
serious matter.
Sincerely,
Editor's Last
Word:
Read us on line:
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~aigp22
Martha Ter Maat, 626-281-4039 /
mtermaat@hsc.usc.edu
