Eastern Europe homeless harrassed (Human Rights Watch 97 report)
Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Thu, 8 Jan 1998 10:09:07 -0800 (PST)
FWD EXCERPT
"Police harassment and brutality were often directed at the region's
most vulnerable groups, such as ethnic and racial minorities, the homeless,
refugees and homosexuals. Before Moscow's 850th anniversary celebration,
for example, police violence and predatory behavior increased noticeably
against Caucasians, Central Asians, refugees from poorer countries, and the
homeless."--Human Rights Watch/Helsinki 1997 Report
Subject: Human Rights Watch/Helsinki 1997 Report: Overview
From: "panayote@greekhelsinki.gr" <helspop0@greekhelsinki.gr>
Date: 1997/12/06
Message-ID: <66c86s$17fq$1@news.missouri.edu>
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.math.missouri.edu
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/HELSINKI
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You can order the complete report at:
http://www.hrw.org/
OVERVIEW EXCERPTS
Persons responsible for abuses during armed conflicts continued to exert
political and economic control in Bosnia, Croatia, the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia (FRY), Georgia, Tajikistan, and Chechnya, and their ongoing
influence hampered efforts to return displaced persons to their homes, as
well as to create state institutions to protect human rights. British SAS
troops arrested one indicted person and killed another who resisted arrest
in Prijedor in July, and because of intense international pressure, ten
Bosnian Croats turned themselves over to the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in October.
Although there appeared to be a lower level of fighting in the
thirteen-year conflict in southeastern Turkey, security forces continued to
commit serious human rights abuses especially against the Kurdish
minority. The Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK) continued to commit
extrajudicial killings, kidnapping, extortion, and destruction of property.
The IRA continued to carry out acts of violence against civilians and
police until it renewed its cease-fire in July. Non-state actors
attempting to influence politics and post-war settlements in Chechnya and
Tajikistan continued to commit humanitarian law violations, including
summary executions, hostage-taking, and torture.
Torture and other inhumane treatment remained common practice in Armenia,
Azerbaijan, FRY, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Little progress
was made in eradicating torture, in large part because torturers were
rarely punished and confessions extracted under torture were frequently
admitted into evidence by national courts. Such practices were all the more
troubling in those countries that continued to enforce the death penalty,
such as Kazakstan and Turkmenistan.
Police brutality and violations of due process continued to be a chronic
problem. During 1997, police used excessive force to break up peaceful
demonstrations in Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, FRY, Georgia, and Macedonia,
and deaths due to ill-treatment in custody were reported in Bulgaria and
FRY. Police harassment and brutality were often directed at the region s
most vulnerable groups, such as ethnic and racial minorities, the homeless,
refugees and homosexuals. Before Moscow's 850th anniversary celebration,
for example, police violence and predatory behavior increased noticeably
against Caucasians, Central Asians, refugees from poorer countries, and the
homeless. Roma continued to suffer pervasive mistreatment by the police
and racially motivated attacks by private individuals with state
complicity, as well as discrimination in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Romania, FRY and Slovakia.
Overcrowding and substandard facilities, as well as poorly trained staff,
contributed to abysmal prison conditions. Ill-treatment and the excessive
use of force by prison officials were also reported in many countries,
including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. In one of the
worst cases of 1997, security forces in Tajkistan quelled a prison riot in
the northern city of Khojand, killing at least twenty-four prisoners and
wounding thirty-five others.
In recent years, there has been an escalation in reports of racial and
ethnic intolerance and discrimination in the region, as citizens and
governments alike have sought scapegoats for the social and economic ills
produced by the transition from communism in the countries of the former
Soviet Union and of Eastern and Central Europe and by the growing number of
legal and/or illegal migrants and asylum seekers, especially in the
countries of Western Europe. In addition to rampant persecution of ethnic
and racial minorities throughout the region, discrimination and police
abuse against homosexuals was reported in Bulgaria and Romania, and women
faced widespread discrimination and were routinely denied the equal
protection of the law. Women victims of crime, such as domestic violence,
rape, and forced prostitution, faced obstacles in trying to obtain justice
for the crimes against them. Women also faced severe abuses in conflict
and post-conflict situations. Refugees and asylum seekers often existed in
a bureaucratic limbo without a concrete legal status, making them more
vulnerable to police abuse, harassment, and discrimination in host
countries. In Russia, for example, police refused to register refugees
from outside the CIS, exposing them to routine beatings, extortion and
eviction by police. E.U. member states continued to enforce ever more
restrictive asylum policies, leading, in some cases, to refoulement, in
contravention of international law.
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