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Wo Weihan – taken before he could say his last goodbyes

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:46:37 +0000

Wo Weihan, a 59-year-old medical scientist who was found guilty of spying for Taiwan, was executed in China on Friday. His daughters and his son-in-law describe how they felt about his killing.

"Today, our beloved father, Wo Weihan, was executed. His life was taken from him before he or our family could say its last goodbyes. The entire process – from arrest to execution – was conducted in a way that was degrading to both my father and our family. We were all misled, led to have false hope, denied the fundamental right to be informed, and forced to suffer.

"On Thursday morning, I visited my father at the Second Intermediate People's Court in Beijing. He had not been informed about any decision by the Supreme Court. He was surprised and very happy to see us.

"Because he did not know about a looming execution, he was hopeful and did not leave any final words or will with our family. Because we also had received no official confirmation on the status of the case, we allowed ourselves to hope with him.

"After the visit, the Austrian embassy wrote a note verbal to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking for a second visitation because 1) we could not say goodbye to our father 2) my sister flew in from Austria and could not see our father on Thursday morning.

"On Thursday afternoon, around 4pm, the Chinese MFA called the Austrian Embassy, informing Ambassador Sajdik and Deputy Ambassador Scholz that our family will receive a second visitation right and should apply through the Beijing High Court. We were very thankful for this opportunity, especially my sister. We expressed our gratitude and our hope in a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

"On Friday morning, we called the court and spoke with the staff member who is responsible for foreigner's requests at the Beijing High Court. She was not informed about this visitation right and promised to verify this information and get back to us. However, we haven't received any feedback and tried to call her throughout the day, without success.

"At 5pm today, we were informed by Austria's deputy ambassador Scholz that the Chinese MFA gave him the confirmation that the execution had taken place in the morning today. According to our information, our father was executed by gunshot.

"We are deeply shocked, saddened, disappointed and outraged. We, the family, were not allowed to say good-bye. We were also denied the most fundamental and universal right of information about what was happening with our father.

"Throughout these four years since our father's arrest, the family was kept in the dark. After Thursday, we were led to believe that we could see our father one more time. The execution was carried out in secrecy while we hoped.

"My father was put to death, so was our hope in the Chinese justice system. It's tragic enough that our father, who allegedly committed a non-violent crime and who pled innocence until the very last moment, was put to death. Why did the Chinese authorities also have to punish our entire family in this inhumane and degrading way?

"Yes, our father was a Chinese citizen and is subject to Chinese law. But the Chinese law also says that death row prisoners deserve the right to see their families before execution, to say goodbye and to go in peace. Our father could not go in peace and our family will be forever haunted.

"Everyone deserves the right for information about what is happening to his or her loved one, across all national boundaries, races and cultures. The misinformation from the Chinese MFA to Austria, the French presidency of the EU and its member states is deceptive and disgraceful.

"My sister and I grew up in China until we were teenagers. We were brought up by Chinese parents who taught us the value of Xiao, the gratitude for one's parents, and the concept of Qin Qing – the highest of all love, the love between father and daughter, mother and son. The legal procedures in China, which we experienced in these last traumatic days, show no regard for these values.

"These procedures degrade humanity. Our hearts are bleeding. Our father was condemned by the Chinese courts, but we will love, respect and remember him forever."

by Ran Chen & Di Chen, Wo Weihan's daughters, and Michael Rolufs, Ran Chen's husband.

China, Iran and Jamaica go against trend on executions

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:27:27 +0000

The execution of a Chinese scientist on Friday is the latest in a series of executions that are going against the global trend towards a moratorium on the death penalty.

Wo Weihan, a 59-year-old medical scientist who was found guilty of spying for Taiwan, spent 30 minutes with his family on the day before his execution. It was the first time he had been allowed to see his loved ones since being moved to a prison hospital in March 2005.

"He was surprised and very happy to see us. Because he did not know about a looming execution, he was hopeful and did not leave any final words or will with our family," said his daughter Ran Chen.

Wo, who holds several patents for biomedical discoveries, was denied access to a lawyer for 10 months after his detention and sentenced to death after a closed trial in May 2007.

"We, the family, have not been granted the most fundamental and universal right of information about what was happening with our father. The execution was carried out in secrecy while we hoped. Not only was my father put to death, but also our hope in the Chinese justice system," said Wo's daughters.

China is one of three countries continuing the policy of killing their own people, less than a week after a record number of countries in the UN supported ending capital punishment.

In Iran, ten people were hanged on Wednesday 26 November in a mass execution that took place in Tehran’s Evin Prison. The executions were reported to have been for murder, robbery, and kidnapping and brought the total number of executions recorded by Amnesty International in 2008 to at least 296.

One of those hanged was Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh, whose conviction to qesas, or retribution – judicial execution for the crime of murder – for the murder of her temporary husband had been upheld in 2006 following a review of the case by the Supreme Court. Courts had rejected her claim that she had acted to prevent her husband, who was a drug addict, from attempting to rape her then teenage daughter from a previous marriage. Apparently he had previously told her that he had lost the girl in a gambling match. Her lawyer was not notified 48 hours in advance of her execution, as is required under Iranian law.

Others are at imminent risk of execution. Farzad Kamangar is a Kurdish teacher whose death sentence on the vaguely worded charge of moharebeh, or enmity against God, often used to mean armed insurrection, was upheld in July 2008. His first trial, prior to which he was tortured in a series of locations, was grossly unfair. He was removed from his cell on 25 November, raising alarm that he would be executed. His lawyer has stated that his case is under review by the Supreme Court and that it is not legally possible to execute him in the absence of any warning. However, as in the case of Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh, human rights activists remain concerned that he may be quickly executed at any time.

At the same time, reports emerged that the Supreme Court had confirmed, in August 2008, a verdict of death by stoning, passed on Afsaneh R by a lower court in Shiraz, southern Iran. Reports suggest that the verdict was reached relying on ‘the knowledge’ of the judge, a provision in Iranian law that enables a judge to determine sentences in a subjective manner. Reports about the verdict cast doubt on the integrity of a statement by a judicial official, on the same day in August 2008, that execution by stoning had been suspended. The Head of Iran’s judiciary had announced a moratorium in 2002, although a stoning took place in 2007. It remains to be seen whether, as the case of Afsaneh R will show, the announcement in August was a hollow promise.

In Jamaica, the vote on retaining the death penalty emerged in light of discussions around the new Charter of Rights and Freedoms Bill. The new Charter seeks to replace Chapter III of the Jamaican Constitution dedicated to the protection of fundamental rights and freedom of persons.

The purpose of the vote was to decide whether provisions allowing for the death penalty as an exception to the right to life should be retained or deleted from the Charter. Following the vote at the House of Representatives, the Senate will also shortly debate and vote the motion.

The last execution in Jamaica was carried out on 18 February 1988. There were more than 190 prisoners under sentence of death at the end of 1988. Currently there are nine prisoners on death row.

"Although there appears little chance of Jamaica carrying out an execution in the near future, AI fears this vote signals the authorities' intention to resume hanging as soon as condemned prisoners pending legal appeals allow them to," said Amnesty International's Piers Bannister.

"As the world increasingly turns its back on capital punishment, Amnesty International urges Iran, China and Jamaica to re-examine their policies of judicial killings. At the UN General Assembly, the international community has spoken with a clear voice that executions are unacceptable. Nations which retain capital punishment must heed this vital message."

A large majority of states from all regions adopted a second resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in the UN General Assembly (Third Committee) on 20 November. 105 countries voted in favour of the draft resolution, 48 voted against and 31 abstained. A range of amendments proposed by a small minority of pro-death penalty countries were overwhelmingly defeated.

The draft resolution adopted on Thursday by the Third Committee of the General Assembly has still to be adopted by the General Assembly sitting in plenary in December.

Don’t turn your back on girls - Sexual violence in Haiti

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:12:16 +0000

Sexual violence against girls in Haiti is widespread and pervasive and, although already at shocking levels, is said to be on the increase. While information on the true levels remains scarce, there is much evidence of sexual violence both in the family and within the wider community, particularly by armed gangs.

Public security and the legacy of sexual violence
Against a backdrop of kidnappings, criminal violence and gang warfare, violence against women and girls in the community has soared. One trend is the prevalence of rapes involving groups of armed men.

For the three years that followed the military coup in 1991 when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted, rape was used as a political weapon to instil fear and punish those who were believed to have supported the democratic government. During this time, there were widespread reports of armed men raping women.

Since the fall of the military regime, this has become a common practice among criminal gangs. In run up to Haiti’s annual carnival in February last year, 50 cases of rape were reported in just three days in the capital against women and girls in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Violence in the family is also prevalent and often hidden. Children often lack the resources and support they need to report violence in which family members participate or collude. The result of the failure to acknowledge and address this problem is a social climate in which violence in the family is seen as normal and inevitable.

Poverty in Haiti is extreme and plays a major role in putting girls at greater risk of sexual violence. Girls are bribed to remain silent by perpetrators, who are able to give them money to pay their schools or accommodation fees. Others who go in search of a public place with lighting by which to do their homework because their home has no electricity are attacked by groups of men.

Girls who become pregnant as a result of sexual violence find themselves at risk due to the lack of adequate healthcare. Only one in every four births in Haiti is assisted by qualified health personnel and large numbers of women and girls are dying as a result of pregnancy related complications.

The consequences of sexual violence on girls are profound and lasting. In addition to immediate physical injuries, survivors may have to face unwanted pregnancy; sexually transmitted diseases; and mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

These consequences can have particularly series long term effects on girls, who are at higher risk of dying during childbirth or pregnancy and may also find their education disrupted, or find themselves excluded from school due to pregnancy.

One girl who raped when she was eight years old said: “I was going to school, but I left after I came here [to a shelter] because my father raped me. I was in the first year. I loved copying the lessons, writing. When I grow up I would like to be a doctor.”

Barriers to justice
Girls are often unwilling to report cases of rape, largely due to shame, fear, and social attitudes that tolerate male violence. Another major disincentive to reporting is the lack of confidence that girls will experience a positive and supportive response from law enforcement officials.

In some rural areas, the sole representative of the justice system is the justice of the peace. It is not uncommon for the justice of the peace to encourage girls who have faced violence accept an "amicable settlement" with the family of the perpetrator.

The justice system in Haiti is weak and ineffectual. The Police unit in charge of protecting minors is woefully under-staffed. In March 2008, the unit had 12 officers to cover the entire country and not a single vehicle. It is not surprising that so many of those who attack girls are never brought to justice, and so many girls feel there is no purpose in reporting crimes of sexual violence.

The authorities in Haiti have taken steps in recent years to address the problem of violence against women and girls. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was established in 1994 and has been involved in important initiatives to address the problem.

In 1995, a National Plan of Action to Combat Violence Against Women was adopted. If implemented, this could bring about significant improvements in prevention and punishment.

The Haitian authorities face major challenges posed by the ongoing public security crisis, a succession of humanitarian disasters, and high levels of poverty and marginalization. These important concerns cannot be allowed to drown out the needs of Haitian girls.

Amnesty International is calling on the Haitian authorities to take immediate action to safeguard the rights of girls:

Collect comprehensive data on the nature and extent of violence against women and girls. The lack of data currently stands in the way of devising effective solutions;
Investigate and prosecute all complaints of sexual violence;
Ensure that police provide a safe environment for girls to report sexual violence, and ensure that all complaints are promptly and effectively investigated.

Neither violence against women nor poverty are inevitable

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:06:32 +0000

Irene Khan, Amnesty International writes about the links between violence against women and poverty to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

As women around the world come together to celebrate the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, violence against women remains endemic in many forms, in all societies.

Just last month, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was stoned to death by a group of 50 men in Somalia. The thirteen year-old was accused of adultery, though according to her father she was raped and had tried to report it. None of those accused of her rape nor murder have been arrested.

Violence against women and girls is a priority concern for Amnesty International and in 2004 a global campaign to Stop Violence against Women was launched. So far the campaign has contributed to successes that have brought a number of legislative and policy changes at national levels, as well as supported efforts in the international arena for the adoption of Resolutions 1325 and 1820 by the United Nations Security Council.

These resolutions on Women Peace and Security aim to ensure women's equal participation in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and post-conflict peacebuilding and to increase the human rights protection of women and girls in conflict situations.

Despite these advances, violence against women and girls remains widespread across the globe. Recent research in Afghanistan, Armenia, Canada, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jamaica, Haiti, Liberia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Venezuela, and the USA has shown that this violence is not only a human rights violation but also a key factor in obstructing the realization of women's and girls' rights to security, adequate housing, health, food, education and participation. Millions of women find themselves locked in cycles of poverty and violence, cycles which fuel and perpetuate one another.

Poverty is characterised by the daily experience of human rights abuses that lead people into deprivation, insecurity, exclusion and voicelessness. Poverty is an affront to human dignity and the worst human rights crisis in the world. It exists in all countries and affects women disproportionately – 70% of the world’s poor are women.

Neither violence against women nor poverty are inevitable, though they combine to restrict women’s choices and put women at risk from violence. While all girls have the right to education, which is vital in allowing them to choose their futures, this right is often curtailed by violence and poverty. In countries such as Haiti, girls may have little choice but to grant sexual favours in order that they can pay their school fees.

Others who go in search of a public place with lighting by which to do their homework because their home has no electricity, are attacked by groups of men. As a result of the abuse, it is likely that girls' education will be disrupted or discontinued.

Violence against women is a human rights abuse for which states are responsible. Amnesty International will continue to demand accountability from both national and international actors for these violations. It will continue to call upon states and the international community to ensure equal access to rights and services for women and girls.

This includes systemically incorporating the analysis of the impact on the enjoyment of women and girls' human rights into all strategies, programs and reporting related to poverty reduction and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

This must also include progress made in the elimination of gender-based violence. Human rights violations cannot be stopped, poverty ended, nor development achieved without the active participation of the people affected by these abuses, in particular women and girls.

Tireless witness to state killing

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:08:06 +0000

“When I walked out of the execution chamber, I had just watched a man electrocuted to death. He looked at my face before they killed him. The cold protocol that all the guards followed shocked me. I came outside the prison into the dark and vomited."

Sister Helen Prejean’s remarkable life has had many turning points, none greater than early on the morning on 5 April 1984, when she witnessed the execution of a man who had become her friend.

It was a defining moment for Sister Prejean, whose life was changed forever when in the early 1980s she went to live among poor African Americans in New Orleans. She left a comfortable middle-class life in the suburbs to discover “another America, one which my eyes had been blind to”. She remembers vividly her shock at seeing so much poverty, injustice and police abuse.

Soon afterwards, she became a pen pal to Patrick Sonnier, who was on death row. The letters soon became visits, and two and a half years later came the moment from which there was no turning back – being with Patrick Sonnier when he was executed.

“It just took my life and turned it inside out. I had been a witness to a state killing so I had to tell the story. I also became involved with the victim’s family and saw their suffering and how the death penalty had nothing to do with their healing. If anything, it prolonged their waiting for this illusory healing, which was supposed to come to them by sitting on the front row and watching Patrick die.”

Her involvement with Patrick Sonnier turned Sister Prejean into a formidable opponent of capital punishment. She translated her experiences into a Pulitzer Prize nominated book, Dead Man Walking, which then formed the basis of the film written and directed by Tim Robbins.

Sister Prejean also took on, with considerable success, two of the world’s most powerful institutions – the Roman Catholic Church and the US state ¬– and shows no signs of relaxing. Now approaching her 70th birthday, she is still tirelessly campaigning around the world to end capital punishment. She gives around 100 talks a year and continues to visit men and women on death row.

Sister Prejean talks passionately about the many levels of injustice she believes are associated with capital punishment – the racism, the scapegoating of the poor, the damage it does to those who administer it and to society at large, the killing of innocent people and the robbing human beings of their dignity.

“There is no dignity in killing a defenceless person,” she says. “This was the heart of my dialogue with Pope John Paul in 1997. I said that Amnesty International has a principled stand, no exceptions, but the Catholic Church doesn’t. I showed him where he had left a loophole for the death penalty - in his encyclical called The gospel of life - ‘in cases of absolute necessity’. I said to him that you can’t leave it up to governments because they’ll always say it’s absolutely necessary.

“When the Pope came to St Louis in 1999, for the first time he put the death penalty along with all the other pro-life issues. He said no to the death penalty because it is cruel, and unnecessary because we have prisons, and then he added that 'even those among us who have done a terrible crime have a dignity’.

“So our task is to teach people, now we’ve got the policy straight!” says Sister Prejean. “There are 65 million Catholics in the USA. The states that have the most Catholics in them are the states that use the death penalty the least. We can end the death penalty by mobilizing the 65 million Catholics.”

She says Amnesty International taught her that human rights are inalienable, that they are not given by governments to people for good behaviour and cannot be taken away from them for bad behaviour.
“Amnesty became my teacher – far quicker than my own Catholic church, which [at that point] had a compromised position on the death penalty. Amnesty has also taught me about spirit and about how you organize people, and how you go about educating people.”

One of the main lessons Sister Prejean learned was to begin with simple methods. “Write a letter to someone," she suggests. "If we let that rose fully unfurl it will change our whole life because it is about standing up for the dignity of each person. It is not so much they [the prisoners on death row] who need to be changed. It is us. It will teach us we have one life – and it counts. We’ve got to do essential things, not trivial things.”

Bolivia's constitution – civil conflict and social progress

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:56:19 +0000

A new constitution will go to the people of Bolivia on 25 January 2009. If passed, the constitution will represent the most significant advancement of economic, social and cultural rights the country has seen in many decades.

In the past few years, Bolivia has seen uprising after uprising amongst the country's poor and excluded – particularly in 2000 when people opposed the privatisation of water and in 2003 against the export of the country's gas. Roadblocks and mass mobilizations, often erupting into violence as the Bolivian army clashed with demonstrators, forced changes in the country’s leadership as well as its government’s plans.

Then, in 2005, Evo Morales was elected president. Bolivia 's indigenous population has only had the vote since 1952 and the election of Morales – of Aymara descent himself - changed the balance of power in the country.

Evo Morales was elected President as the leader of the Movement towards Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS), which had been involved in the recent protests. He also became the first indigenous person to become head of the Bolivian state in over four centuries, since the Spanish conquest, despite the indigenous population representing the majority of the population.

Morales' election raised the hopes and aspirations of many of the same poor and excluded people who had blockaded the roads around La Paz over the years.

The draft constitution includes the right to water; food security; health; education; housing; basic services; a just wage; and the right to strike and form a union. It is innovative in several key areas, notably in its recognition of Bolivia 's indigenous population, the 'plurinational' nature of the state, the assertion of collective rights, a stronger role for the state in economic policies and prioritization of collective interest over private interests.

If approved, the proposed constitution would prohibit the privatisation of water or the inclusion of water in trade agreements. It would also ban private, for-profit control of basic services, energy companies and social security.

In September this year, conflict erupted on the streets in response to the government’s plans. Opposition groups’ reactions demonstrated the entrenched racism and discrimination in Bolivian society. Morales' election and his government represent the empowerment of the traditionally marginalised sectors of Bolivian society. This has triggered hostile opposition from powerful landowning families and the business elite, who are fearful of losing long-held privileges.

In September, civilians linked to some regional authorities opposed to President Morales blocked roads, and forcibly seized airports and local branches of state offices. They also attacked media outlets and offices of several NGOs working with indigenous and peasant communities.

On 9 September 2008, in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, university students and members of the oppositionist Union of Santa Cruz Youth (Unión Juvenil Cruceñista) seized and looted local branches of government offices including the local land reform office as well as two media outlets. Over three days , three NGOs promoting the rights of indigenous and peasant communities were also attacked. Their offices were broken into, with equipment and furniture destroyed and documentation burnt.

One of the NGOs, Centre of Legal Studies and Social Investigation (Centro de Estudios Jurídicos e Investigación Social, CEJIS) works to secure the land rights of indigenous and peasant farmers.
CEJIS director, Leonardo Tamburini, said of the attack: "They came in three four-wheel drive vehicles, around 50 people, young thugs, some of them drunk. They rammed the front door with a vehicle. They came in, looted all the documentation they could find and set fire to it. They broke all the glass in the office, destroyed desks, cabinets and stole books - almost a third of our library which consists of thousands of volumes. They took them all out into the street and set fire to them. Piles of documents telling the history of CEJIS, the history of its support to the land entitlement process, its support to the Constituent Assembly. The 30 years of CEJIS history was all looted and burnt.”

These attacks are the latest in the escalation of violence that has been seen in Bolivia over recent years. At least 18 people – mainly indigenous and peasant farmers, as well as three students - were killed on 11 September when a group of indigenous and peasant farmers were ambushed in the northern department of Pando. According to eyewitnesses, attackers arrived in official vehicles belonging to opposition authorities.

The National Ombudsman's office, which carried out an initial investigation into the incident, stated that the deaths were the result of a planned massacre.

The Bolivian government has consistently called for dialogue. However, it was only after the recent escalation of violence and after the outrage it engendered from those inside and outside of Bolivia (including the newly created Union of South American Nations – UNASUR, and the EU) that formal negotiations between the pro-autonomy opposition and the government managed to reach an agreement on the constitutional text.

The main issues under discussion included revenues from the taxation of oil and gas, departmental autonomy, landownership and the designation of authorities in the National Congress. A final decision was reached by Congress on 21 October after over a month of dialogue. It was decided that the new proposed constitution would go to referendum on 25 January 2009.

Take Action:

Sign our petition calling on the Bolivian authorities to Indigenous and peasant farmers and their defenders

Majority support expected in UN vote on death penalty moratorium

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:25:08 +0000

A large majority of states from all regions are expected to back a second resolution by the UN General Assembly (Third Committee) on Thursday, calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

The draft resolution to be voted on reaffirms resolution 62/149 of 18 December 2007, "Moratorium on the use of the death penalty". It welcomes the decisions taken by an increasing number of States to apply a moratorium on executions and the global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty.

It also welcomes the report of the UN Secretary-General on the implementation of
resolution 62/149; and requests the Secretary-General to provide a report on progress made in the implementation of both resolutions to the UN General Assembly in 2010 (65th session).

The General Assembly is expected to endorse the decision in a plenary session in December.

One-hundred-and-thirty-seven countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. During 2007, at least 1,252 people were executed in 24 countries. At least 3,347 people were sentenced to death in 51 countries.

Death Penalty gallery - No human way to kill

No truth, no justice 40 years after Mexico City massacre

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:40:16 +0000

Forty years ago, the Mexican army opened fire on students peacefully demonstrating in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, on 2 October 1968. Estimates vary on how many people were killed, but the massacre remains one of the worst incidents of mass killing in Mexico’s history.

1968 was a year where students and activists around the world rose up to change their reality and, in many places, they clashed with the authorities.

Students shut down campuses across the USA as riots and anti-war marches spread across the country. 80,000 marched against the Vietnam War in London and the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland gained impetus. In May, students in Paris rose up, followed by a huge public strike. There was widespread popular opposition in Czechoslovakia as Soviet troops suppressed political reforms.

And, in downtown Mexico City, just days before the 1968 Olympics opened, police, military and unidentified armed men surrounded La Plaza de Las Tres Culturas, Tlatelolco. The square was full of people demonstrating against police brutality as part of a general student strike that followed the beating of students by the anti-riot police "los granaderos" in July.

At about 6pm, they opened fire, from armoured vehicles using heavy weapons and soldiers on foot carrying bayonet rifles. They fired on the square packed with students and on surrounding residential buildings. Forty-four bodies were eventually released by the government – ten have still not been identified.

And, four decades later, the Mexican government still hasn’t given answers to questions surrounding the massacre that took place in Mexico City, according to Amnesty International. Javier Zúñiga, now a special advisor at Amnesty International, then a lecturer at the National School of Agriculture, had brought his wife and two-year-old daughter to what was expected to be a peaceful event. They witnessed the arrival of government troops from a nearby bridge overlooking the square.

"Forty years on from the Tlatelolco massacre, so many disturbing questions remain unanswered," said Javier Zúñiga. "Who ordered the massacre? For how long had it been planned? How many were killed? Who are those whose bodies still have not been identified?

"It was getting dark at the time the gunfire started, so it was difficult to see exactly what was happening, but I remember, as clearly now as at the time, that the army moved into the square before the gunfire started and not as a consequence of it, as many government sources have maintained. People panicked and started running in different directions crying ‘the army is coming, the army is coming!’ Before long, it seemed as if the square was full with bodies.

"I went back early the following morning and saw piles of belts and shoes. Pools of blood remained on the ground despite obvious efforts to wash them away. I also saw large bullet holes on concrete pillars at adult head height."

Despite continuous efforts by victims, relatives and participants in the student movement to establish the truth of what occurred that night, the full facts have never been established and those responsible have not been held to account.

"The failure of the Mexican government to establish the truth of what happened on the night of 2 October 1968 has left a deep scar in Mexican society that can only be healed by full disclosure, bringing the perpetrators to justice, and providing reparations to the victims or their families," said Kerrie Howard, Deputy Director of the Americas Programme at Amnesty International.

"President Calderón’s government has been all but silent on this dark chapter in Mexico’s history. We challenge this administration to open all relevant archives and records, establish a new and independent inquiry, and lift the obstacles preventing those responsible for this horrific crime being brought to justice."

The organization called on Mexican President Felipe Calderón to establish once and for all the truth behind the massacre that took place in La Plaza de Las Tres Culturas, Tlatelolco, Mexico City, just days before the 1968 Olympics opened. It also urged the government to provide justice and reparations for the families of the victims.

Trapped – collective punishment in Gaza

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:52:48 +0000

"The Israeli siege has turned Gaza into a big prison. We cannot leave, not even for medical care or to study abroad, and most of what we need is not available in Gaza. We are not living really; we are barely surviving and the outlook for the future is bleak." – Fathi, a Gaza resident.

With Gaza locked down and cut off from the outside world by a stifling Israeli blockade, 46 peace activists from the world over set sail for Gaza on 22 August to, in their words, “break the siege that Israel has imposed on the civilian population of Gaza…, to express our solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza, and to create a free and regular channel between Gaza and the outside world”.

An Israeli peace activist on board the Free Gaza boats, Professor Jeff Halper, said: “The mission is to break the Israeli siege, an absolutely illegal siege which has plunged a million and a half Palestinians into wretched conditions: imprisoned in their own homes, exposed to extreme military violence, deprived of the basic necessities of life, stripped of their most fundamental human rights and dignity. The siege violates the most fundamental principle of international law: the inadmissibility of harming civilian populations… I cannot stand idly aside… To do so would violate my commitment to human rights”.

The blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip over a year ago has left the entire population of 1.5 million Palestinians trapped with dwindling resources and an economy in ruins. Some 80 per cent of the population now depend on the trickle of international aid that the Israeli army allows in. This humanitarian crisis is man-made and entirely avoidable.

Even patients in dire need of medical treatment not available in Gaza are often prevented from leaving and scores of them have died. Students who have scholarships in universities abroad are likewise trapped in Gaza, denied the opportunity to build a future.

The Israeli authorities argue that the blockade on Gaza is in response to Palestinian attacks, especially the indiscriminate rockets fired from Gaza at the nearby Israeli town of Sderot. These and other Palestinian attacks killed 25 Israelis in the first half of this year; in the same period Israeli forces killed 400 Palestinians.

However, the Israeli blockade does not target the Palestinian armed groups responsible for attacks – it collectively punishes the entire population of Gaza.

In April 2008, Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the UN Secretary General, called on Israel to restore fuel supplies to Gaza and allow the passage of humanitarian assistance and commercial supplies.

"The collective punishment of the population of Gaza, which has been instituted for months now, has failed," he said.

Though a ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups has held in Gaza since 19 June 2008, the Israeli blockade remains in place.

Economic collapse and poverty

Israel has banned exports from Gaza altogether and has reduced entry of fuel and goods to a trickle – mostly humanitarian aid, foodstuff and medical supplies. Basic necessities are in short supply or not available at all in Gaza. The shortages have pushed up food prices at a time when people can least afford to pay more. A growing number of Gazans have been pushed into extreme poverty and suffer from malnutrition.

Some 80 per cent of the population now depends on international aid, compared to 10 per cent a decade ago. The restrictions imposed by Israel have resulted in higher operational costs for UN aid agencies and humanitarian organizations. Food assistance costs the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) US$20 per person per day compared to less than US$8 in 2004.

Gaza’s fragile economy, already battered by years of restrictions and destruction, has collapsed. Unable to import raw materials and to export produce and without fuel to operate machinery and electricity generators, some 90 per cent of industry has shut down.

Essential services jeopardized

The fuel shortage has affected every aspect of life in Gaza. Patients’ hospital attendance has dropped because of lack of transport and universities were forced to shut down before the end of the school year as students and teachers could not continue to travel to them. Fuel-powered pumps for wells and water distribution networks are often not working.

Medical facilities in Gaza lack the specialized staff and equipment to treat a range of conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, hospitals are now under ever greater pressure, as they face shortages of equipment, spare parts and other necessary supplies as a result of the blockade.

With the ceasefire holding, the suffering in Gaza has fallen off the international news agenda. However, Amnesty International members continue to campaign, calling:

on the Israeli authorities to immediately lift the blockade, allow unhindered passage into Gaza of sufficient quantities of fuel, electricity and other necessities; and allow those who want to leave Gaza to do so, notably patients in need of medical treatment not available in Gaza and students enrolled in universities abroad, and also to allow them later to return;

on Palestinian armed groups not to resume rocket and other attacks on Israeli civilians.

Russia and Georgia – Background to conflict

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:23:23 +0000

After months of increased tension, and recent low-level hostilities, the conflict between Georgia and the breakaway region of South Ossetia escalated in the early morning of 8 August 2008. The fighting became the most serious confrontation since the civil war between the two was concluded through a truce in 1992.

Georgian troops launched what appears to have been a coordinated military offensive against the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, with the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili emphasizing the need "to restore constitutional order" over the region.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, pledging "to respect the life and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are", responded by sending further troops to reinforce those already stationed in South Ossetia as part of the ceasefire.

On 9 August President Saakashvili declared a 15-day ‘state of war’ to facilitate mobilization.

South Ossetia
The people of South Ossetia are a distinct ethnic group, speaking a language distantly related to Farsi.

South Ossetia, which is in Georgia, is separated from North Ossetia, which is in Russia, by the border between the two countries running high in the Caucasus. Much of the region lies more than 1000m above sea level.

South Ossetia was an autonomous province of Georgia during the Soviet era. It declared independence from Georgia in 1990 and armed conflict between South Ossetian and Georgian forces ensued in 1991 and 1992.

The conflict ended in 1992 with a ceasefire and establishment of a tripartite peacekeeping force, with Russian, Ossetian and Georgian peacekeeping battalions. South Ossetia has enjoyed de facto independence since 1992, although not recognized by any other state. Many of its ethnic Ossetian inhabitants have, however, acquired Russian passports. A third of the population is reported to be ethnically Georgian.

Tensions, never far below the surface, increased after the 2004 election of President Saakashvili, who pledged to restore Georgian territorial integrity by re-establishing control over South Ossetia and the other unrecognized region of Abkhazia, in the north-west.

Tensions have also increased between Georgia and Russia this year over Abkhazia, where Russia has troops operating as a peacekeeping force mandated by the Commonwealth of Independent States. The UN also has an observer contingent there, known as UNOMIG, established in August 1993 to verify compliance with the ceasefire agreement.

The conduct of military operations
The principles of international humanitarian law are binding on states and non-governmental armed groups.

The following are key principles of international humanitarian law:

All parties to the conflict must protect civilians and respect the distinction between military targets and civilians objects;
Direct attacks against civilians or civilian objects, whether in reprisal or for any other reason are prohibited;
Neither side can use a civilian object such as a school or hospital to shield fighters or weapons;
Indiscriminate attacks which do not attempt to distinguish between military target and civilians or civilians objects , or which use inherently indiscriminate weapons, are prohibited;
Disproportionate attacks are prohibited too – this means attacks that, while aimed at a legitimate military target, have a disproportionate impact on civilians relative to the military objective;
Parties must take measures to protect the civilian population from the dangers arising from military operations – this includes not locating military objectives among civilian concentrations;
Civilians must have access to humanitarian assistance, and humanitarian agencies must be allowed access to the civilian population;
All prisoners, the wounded and those seeking to surrender, must be treated humanely – prisoners must never be killed or held as hostages;
Anyone responsible for grave breaches of international humanitarian law should be brought to justice in a fair trial, and reparations should be provided to the victims of such violations.