COMMISSION HEARS REPORTS ON ARBITRARY EXECUTIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATIONS IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, CUBA, NIGERIA
Press Release
HR/CN/859
COMMISSION HEARS REPORTS ON ARBITRARY EXECUTIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATIONS IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, CUBA, NIGERIA
19980416 Foreign Ministers of Nigeria and Albania Address Meeting(Reissued as received.)
GENEVA, 15 April (UN Information Service) -- A series of Special Rapporteurs reviewed, respectively, the problem of arbitrary executions around the world and human rights situations in Cuba, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the Commission on Human Rights continued this morning its debate on the status of fundamental freedoms around the world.
The Commission also heard addresses by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria and Albania.
The Nigerian Minister, Tom Ikimi, charged that the Commission had knuckled under to politically motivated pressure from a group of western countries, led by the United Kingdom, in appointing a Special Rapporteur on Nigeria, and that it was unacceptable that some powerful nations should attempt to dictate to Nigeria what system of government it should have and who its leaders should be.
The Special Rapporteur on Nigeria, Soli Sorabjee, told the Commission there were extensive violations of basic human rights in the country despite some changes made by the Government. The rule of law was absent; the country was ruled by military decrees, and there was arbitrary detention of numerous persons, many of whom were held incommunicado for long periods.
Bacre N'diaye, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, said, among other things, that efforts of the Sri Lankan Government to deal with the problem were to be supported but were not sufficient. Similar difficulties and resulting massacres in Algeria had not halted and it was urgent for him to visit the country to analyse the situation. Speaking of a visit made to the United States, he said he had observed shortcomings there to the main principles which should govern the use of the death penalty.
His comments drew a response from a representative of the United States, who contended that the Special Rapporteur had been provided with extensive details on United States on constitutional and legal protections for criminal defendants but had not included them in his report, resulting in a document that was "severely flawed".
Carl-Johan Groth, Special Rapporteur on Cuba, said that intense harassment continued of those who showed attitudes diverging from official opinions, and that such persons were tried and punished, although prison sentences were less harsh than in previous years. Restrictions continued on freedom of expression, association, and the press, and there had been no improvements in deplorable prison conditions.
The representative of Cuba responded that the investigation of the country was an empty procedure that cast doubt on the credibility of the Commission, and that the continued existence of the Special Rapporteur's mandate indicated that the Commission was being used as a political tool by the United States.
Roberto Garreton, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told the Commission that matters there had not improved and that arbitrary detention and extra-judiciary executions were being practised by the armed forces and police of the current regime.
A response from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was expected later.
Paskal Milo, the Albanian Foreign Minister, in his address, called, among other things, for greater international pressure on the Serbian regime of the former Yugoslavia to begin genuine negotiations to resolve the crisis with ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
The following non-governmental organizations delivered statements at the meeting: International Association for Religious Freedom; International Commission of Jurists; Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace; Federation of Cuban Women; Asian Cultural Forum on Development; Arab Organization for Human Rights; International Progress Organization; International Federation of Christians for the Abolition of Torture; and American Association of Jurists.
Statement by Minister for Foreign Affairs of Albania
PASKAL MILO, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania, said the country had experienced a long and dark history of deprivation of human rights during the totalitarian period during which it had been isolated by a particularly frigid brand of communism from the rest of the world. Now, 50 years after establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Albania was
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undergoing a difficult transition to an open, democratic society; it had failed in its previous attempt, ending up with authoritarianism, and now the new Government, in its nine months of life, was working to reconstruct institutions, establish public order, and implement reforms. The political parties were drafting a Constitution and intended to include a chapter on human rights; the current majority in Parliament was engaged in constructing a political system based on division of powers and freedom of expression and movement. A free press had been declared. The issue of the death penalty was a difficult and important matter, and through joining the Council of Europe the country had agreed to a three-year moratorium on its use while the matter was evaluated and efforts were made to move towards less frequent use of the penalty and its gradual abolition.
The country was extremely concerned with the situation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the Foreign Minister said. Two million Albanians there, who made up 90 per cent of the population of the region, were oppressed and discriminated against by the Serbs, who constituted less than 10 per cent of the population; for ethnic Albanians there was no freedom of thought, speech, organization, political inclination, culture, society, employment, or education. The Commission must discuss the situation in Kosovo and take appropriate action. The Serbs continued to keep Kosovo villages surrounded and oppressed violently any peaceful demonstrations; in addition they were trying to start false negotiations. The Albanians of Kosovo had showed patience for eight years, and they truly believed a peaceful solution could be found to this crisis; the international community must help them. The Serbs must receive a clear message that it was time to start a genuine dialogue with Kosovo's Albanians.
Statements in Debate
GIANFRANCO ROSSI, of the International Association for Religious Freedom, said attention should be paid to the situation in Saudi Arabia; religious freedom there and many other freedoms were curtailed or non-existent. The Saudi Government had indicated that it was open to discussion of matters; but the Constitution of the country was based on the Sharia, and the Sharia did not protect all human rights according to universal standards. For example, the Sharia called for the death penalty for believers of Islam who changed their religion; in the country, moreover, hundreds of thousands of Christian workers could not worship and had no church for worship of their own religion; such a national practice contradicted not only international human-rights standards but the Koran. Saudi Arabia should declare true religious freedom and put behind it inhuman religious traditions that smacked of intolerance and violence, thus displaying the true, tolerant nature of Islam.
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NATHALIE PROUVEZ, of the International Commission of Jurists, said her group was concerned over human rights violations in Algeria, Bahrain, Mexico and Turkey. In Algeria, the ongoing wave of brutal killings was a matter of grave concern; the silence of the international community contradicted agreed principles of State responsibly. Gross violations of human rights had increase as a result of attacks and counter-attacks between State security forces and State armed militia claiming to be combating terrorism on the one hand, and armed Islamist groups on the other. The human rights situation in Bahrain was also alarming because of the increase in arbitrary arrests of citizens by the authorities. In Mexico, after the massacre of 22 December which left 45 persons dead in Chiapas, the situation was still to improve; the perpetrators of the massacre had not been brought before the courts. And in Turkey, despite a number of positive legal changes over the past year, the Government had failed to take the necessary steps to remedy situations of arbitrary detention, despite the requests of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
NATALIE ELKAIM, of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had failed to eliminate violations of human rights. For example, in December 1997, a peace agreement was signed by the Government of Bangladesh and the Juna Samhati Samiti to bring to an end to a decade-long political crisis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh during which the indigenous Jumma people had been subjected to heinous violations of their human rights by settlers. The persecution of the Jumma people by the settlers continued, however, disguised as freedom of expression. Another territory experiencing tension and subsequent conflict was East Timor, where violations of human rights continued today under Indonesian occupation.
BACRE WALY NDIAYE, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had not coincided with a triumph for the right to life: extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions had occurred in 86 countries in the past year. More women, children, the elderly and the disabled had been killed than combatants in internal wars around the globe. In this year of the fiftieth anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide the international community had good cause to be ashamed, for that crime had not disappeared. Rather, it was reappearing where it should have been prevented, such as in Rwanda in 1994.
Mr. Ndiaye said he had visited Sri Lanka from 24 August to 15 September 1997, receiving the full cooperation of the Government. There, continued armed conflict in part of the country could not justify impunity for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, nor could it justify the current state of emergency. The efforts of the Government were to be backed, but they were not sufficient to deal with the legacy of the past.
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The Special Rapporteur had difficulty in dealing with non-governmental entities like terrorist groups, he continued. It was such difficulties that he had referred to last year concerning Algeria. The massacres in Algeria had not halted; it was urgent for him to visit the country to analyse the situation. He was waiting for the Algerian Government to propose a date for a visit.
Speaking of his visit to the United States from 21 September to 8 October 1997, the Special Rapporteur said he had studied questions linked to enjoying of the right to life, the death penalty and death from excessive use of force by police. He had been able to observe shortcomings regarding basic principles which should govern the application of the death penalty. He regretted that the de facto moratorium on the execution of women had been violated twice in the United States in 1998.
GEORGE MOOSE (United States) said the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, on his visit to the country, had been provided by the Government with a solid overview of the United States system; with extensive details on Constitutional and legal protections for criminal defendants, and with extensive information on the mechanism in place for dealing with cases of deaths in police custody. Yet, the Special Rapporteur had not included that information in his report. The report was severely flawed. It misstated international law when it said that United States use of the death penalty was a violation of international law. Capital punishment was not prohibited by customary international law when international standards of due process were fully protected, and United States law provided such protections.
The United States respected the right of other countries to ban the death penalty on their soil and to enter into related treaties and other agreements, he said. However, the United States was not a party to any of those agreements. The United States would provide a written response to the report which should be read in conjunction with it, to provide a fuller and more balanced picture; the United States stressed that the work of the Special Rapporteurs should be performed in a responsible manner, taking account of the facts. The United States none the less valued the Special Rapporteur system and would continue to support it.
ROBERTO GARRETON, Special Rapporteur on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, introducing his report, said the hopes placed on the regime that overthrew the Mobutu dictatorship had begun to fade. The new Government had had the historic possibility of installing a democratic regime respectful of human rights by bringing together all the forces that had fought the dictatorship. It did not do so. With the triumph of the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaire (AFDL) a logic of war was imposed on the country, one in which the winners look upon the rest of the
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population as enemies. Power is wielded unchecked by President Kabila and the Alliance, the party-State.
His report listed numerous attacks on the right to life committed by the new armed forces, the police or members of the AFDL, the Special Rapporteur continued. His main concern, however, related to the use of the death penalty, which was being applied with terrifying frequency following military trials that left no possibility of appeal. The country's Military Tribunal had so far sentenced 56 people to death.
The Special Rapporteur said political parties were prohibited so as to, as the Government said, keep the country from succumbing to chaos. Those who violated the ban were imprisoned, banished and even tortured. Worse still, some political leaders had been tried by the Military Tribunal. Human rights NGOs had also come under attack. Most recently, the group AZADHO had been banned, the same day that the Commission, including the Congo, adopted the declaration on the protection of human rights defenders.
The Special Rapporteur had received no cooperation from the Government, Mr. Garreton continued. None the less, the Government's latest response to his report was not as aggressive as previous ones, and he hoped that would be a first step on the road to cooperation.
Mr. Garreton also introduced the report of the Commission's Joint Investigative Mission on the allegations of grave human rights violations in the east of the Congo (document E/CN.4/1998/64). The joint mission, charged with investigating "allegations of massacres and other human rights violations occurring in eastern Zaire since September 1996", was established by the Commission at its last session. The other members of the joint mission are the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Bacre Waly Ndiye, and a member of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Jonas Foli. Given obstacles raised by the Alliance, and then by the Government of Congo-Kinshasa, the joint mission was not able to visit the country. To overcome that impasse, the Secretary-General established an investigative team under his own authority.
In the report, the joint mission concludes that there is no denying that ethnic massacres were committed and that the victims were mostly Hutus from Burundi, Rwanda and former Zaire. The joint mission's preliminary opinion is that some of these alleged massacres could constitute acts of genocide. However, the joint mission could not issue a precise, definitive opinion on the basis of the information currently available to it. Without firm determination on the part of the international community to shed light on the extremely serious allegations referred to in this report, the tradition of impunity which prevails in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the Great Lakes region is very likely to be carried on.
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Its unfortunate consequences would include to encourage the repetition of massacres of persons who were the weakest by those who were the strongest at that particular time, to jeopardize efforts to re-establish peace in the region and, by allowing the miscarriage of justice, to dash hopes of the re-establishment of the rule of law, he said. As far as the investigation is concerned, the Congolese precedent might also give other actors on the international scene the wrong idea as a result of acceptance of the fait accompli and the policy of a "double standard" in respect of accountability for serious and large-scale violations of human rights and humanitarian law.
CARL-JOHAN GROTH, Special Rapporteur on Cuba, said the human rights situation in Cuba offered no significant change in respect to the situation described in previous years. The lack of cooperation from the Government had left his request to visit the country unanswered. Therefore, the report continued to be based on information received from non-governmental organizations.
Mr. Groth said he had not observed any significant changes in the development of the human rights situation nor in the repressive pattern of the security forces in Cuba in 1997. There had continued to be intensive harassment of all those who showed attitudes which were discordant. Trials of those persons continued, although prison sentences were less harsh than in previous years. Harassment of political dissidents for reasons related to the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression and association also persisted. Journalists in Cuba continued to be systematically harassed to stop independent dissemination of news.
The Special Rapporteur said there had been two important political events in Cuba over the last year. In October 1997, the fifth Congress of the Communist Party had adopted a document which confirmed the validity of socialism and the single party; it also endorsed minimal possibilities for private initiatives, while stressing that the State should keep its predominant role. That would not produce any significant political or social change which might help in the development of Cuban society, he said. Secondly, in January this year, there had been elections to the National People's Assembly and to provincial assemblies. However, the election of candidates was so controlled that it was not for possible for non-governmental candidates to be placed on the electoral lists. Further, economic and social rights continued to worsen in the country. The Special Rapporteur welcomed the recent humanitarian measures taken by the United States and said the next step should be the complete removal of the sanctions, or at least an end to restrictions on medicines and food.
CARLOS AMAT FORES (Cuba) said that once again the Special Rapporteur's report was an exercise in duped cards and already known tricks, and an empty procedure; it cast doubt on the credibility of the Commission -- on its
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transparency, impartiality, and objectivity. Cuba's case was well-known. It was a small country forced to fight for over 100 years for its freedom and development, in recent decades against the economic and armed aggression, sabotage, terrorist actions, bacteriological warfare and unceasing propaganda of the United States. The Special Rapporteur was just another case of manipulation by the United States. The Commission was being used; the Special Rapporteur was nothing but an instrument. There had never been practices of torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, political assassinations or convictions by offences which were not previously provided for in Cuba's penal legislation. Never had a defendant lacked a fair trial. Cuba was open to international cooperation in human rights as long as it was established on a fair and non-discriminatory basis; Cuba had cooperated with those treaty bodies to which it was a party, as well as with the diverse thematic procedures of the Commission. But it would never accept a special procedure which served such a selective and discriminatory aim. The establishment of this special procedure was never justified, and it was less so now. The empty exercise should be ended and Cuba's freedom respected.
SOLI J. SORABJEE, Special Rapporteur on Nigeria, introducing his report, said there had been extensive violations of basic human rights in that country over the past year, despite some changes by the Government and measures initiated by it. The rule of law was absent; the country was ruled by military decrees and there was arbitrary detention of numerous persons, many of whom were held incommunicado for long periods.
There was no effective legal protection of human rights and several human rights provisions of the 1979 Constitution had been suspended, the Special Rapporteur continued. The incorporation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights into the domestic laws of Nigeria had been revoked. The independence and authority of the judiciary were undermined by ouster clauses in the decrees and also on account of disobedience of court orders. Due process and fair trial were conspicuously absent in criminal trials; tribunals lacked the requisite independence and impartiality. The practice of detaining family members and other relatives of Nigerians living in exile, known as hostage-taking, was prevalent.
Mr. Sorabjee said those who wished Nigeria well would be most happy to witness the restoration in Nigeria of the rule of law and democracy, not in name but in substance.
Chief TOM IKIMI, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, said that in a body like the Commission, it was possible to achieve the objective of assessing how far the Universal Declaration had become a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. A confrontational approach to that highly desirable objective made it more difficult to build the consensus necessary for the full realization of human rights and freedoms for all.
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Obviously, national circumstances and experiences varied widely in the enjoyment and application of human rights in general; there were different levels of developments and economic situations with varying capacities in resources, endowment and skills. There were also different cultural and political systems. All of those factors played a significant part in determining the extent to which rights and freedoms could be realized and enjoyed.
On the question of human rights observance, Nigeria had been made a subject of international attention, Chief Ikimi said. Indeed, in 1994, a politically-motivated resolution was instigated against Nigeria by a group of Western countries led by the United Kingdom. However, that effort, designed to censure Nigeria's human rights record, had failed because a majority of Commission members saw no merit in the resolution. Unfortunately, the failure did not dissuade those countries from their unrelenting campaign against Nigeria, both within and outside the Commission. Consequently, since 1995, the agenda item "situation of human rights in Nigeria" had been tabled yearly for debate by that same group of countries, without taking due cognisance of the true human rights situation and development in Nigeria.
Anyone genuinely interested in Nigeria, and any objective analyst of the facts on the ground, could not fail to recognize the positive and momentous development taking place, Chief Ikimi said. Six new states and 182 additional Local Government Areas had been created in response to the wishes of the people to bring government closer tot he grass roots. A National Human Rights Commission had been established, headed by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court with wide responsibilities. Nigeria had no political prisoners. In addition, since October 1995, the Government had been implementing a transition to democratic rule programme, designed to involve all Nigerians in participatory democracy. A true democracy should contain a strong local socio-cultural component, the right of participation and the freedom of choice.
There was no worldwide democratic system that was uniformly transferable to fit neatly into all societies, he continued. Nigeria's commitment to democratic governance was not a response to any external demand or pressure for democratization. The path of democracy was one that Nigerians had chosen voluntarily and which they would follow at their own pace and in their own time. It was therefore unacceptable that some powerful nations should persist in their attempts to dictate to Nigeria what system of government they should operate and who their leaders should be. That was not an issue of human rights.
YAMILA GONZALEZ FERRER, of the Federation of Cuban Women, said much was said about the violations of human rights and violence against women, especially in the domestic environment. However, little was said about State
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violence exerted against women and men inside their countries and by some countries against others. The blockade affecting the Cuban people and women was the worst act of violence against them: it was a permanent violation of their human rights. There was no reason to blockade Cuba and there was no reason to maintain a Special Rapporteur on Cuba. Despite the strenuous conditions in which Cubans lived, the Government had conducted a coherent and systematic policy in pursuit of development and the well-being of the people. Cuba's northern neighbours feared the courage and the resistance of Cubans, their unyielding character and their intolerance to interference. Cubans demanded their right to freedom, to independence and to their own model of development and democracy.
SUHAS CHAKMA, of the Asian Cultural Forum on Development, said that in Bangladesh the agreement on the Chittagong Hill Tracts dispute was encouraging, but only a statement of intent; care should be taken to be certain that it was implemented; meanwhile, it was a cause of concern that there was an increase in arrests and detentions in the Hill Tracts, and there were cases of a vigilante group supported by the Government targeting of members of the Hill People's Council, Hill Students Council and Hill Women's Federation for arrest, detention, torture, and extra-judicial killing for criticizing the peace agreement. Inquiries into past atrocities had not been made public. The Commission must urge the Government of Bangladesh to end its reign of terror and lawlessness in the Hill Tracts. Malaysia must stop refoulement of Acehnese asylum seekers and provide the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) access to those now detained, and the Indonesia Government must provide access to UNHCR to visit Aceh and interview those who had been deported from Malaysia. The Commission also must look into religious discrimination in Tibet.
NAZAR ABDEL GADIR, of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said numerous violations of human rights were being perpetrated in many Arab countries. Almost half of them had not ratified the Convention against Torture. In some Arab countries, laws had been enacted contrary to international norms. In Libya, for example, there was a law on collective punishment, while in Jordan a law that restricted the freedom of the press had forced several newspapers to close down. In Sudan, the process of establishing a multi-party system had been hampered by a law restricting the creation of political parties. Also, forced conscription in Sudan had resulted in the mass exodus of youths to neighbouring regions. In Algeria, meanwhile, the Government could not protect its population from arbitrary killing; it had also refused to accept an independent investigating group in its territory. With regard to Palestine, its people should be able to restore their rights and to establish their own political regime in their territory.
REFAQAT ALI KHAN, of the International Progress Organization, said that despite many strides along the path of progress in Pakistan, and despite the
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determination of its people, the country's leaders had not shaken off the legacy of a dictatorial past. That not only affected the human rights of the people of Pakistan but also muddied the atmosphere for its neighbours. Pakistan's powerful feudal structure, the only one of its kind in South Asia, was perhaps the greatest contributor to human rights violations. Pakistan's Constitution reserved the highest offices in the land only for the members of the majority community. Such a practice left a great deal to be desired with regard to the human rights of minorities.
ARTURO REQUESENS, of the International Federation of Christians for the Abolition of Torture, said that concern remained about the situation in Peru; the amnesty granted there was an affront to those seeking justice for previous human-rights abuses, including numerous rapes committed by State forces of women held in custody on highly questionable terrorism charges. Prison conditions were deplorable and had been hardened: a prison had been opened last year at 4,650 metres of altitude, with no heating or drinking water. The Commission should order Peru to close that prison. In Colombia, the deterioration of human rights continued, and paramilitary units grew more and more violent in rural regions, causing massive population displacements; the High Commissioner's office in Bogota should be strengthened. In Mexico, torture was being used increasingly by federal and local police forces and armed forces; the practice was generalized at this point; the Commission must call the Government to account.
MERCEDES MOYA, of the American Association of Jurists, said the conflict in Chiapas, Mexico, reflected the attempt to promote by fire and blood a development model that benefited exclusively some privileged minorities. The Mexican Government should abide by agreements reached and guarantee the right of its people, including the right to well-being. In Peru, meanwhile, the situation of the judiciary could not be worse. Recently, the members of the National Council of the Magistrature had resigned to protest the curtailment of their powers. The attacks against the judiciary were so blatant that even the World Bank was withholding money which had been earmarked for the modernization of the Peruvian justice system. And in Bolivia, the Government had violently repressed demonstrations by peasants protesting the refusal of the authority to provide promised compensation for the eradication of coca crops.
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