June 1995, Page 68

Human Rights

By R. Clemente Holder

Kuwait Expands Human Rights Investigation Facilities

The Kuwaiti government has appointed an Interior Ministry panel to cooperate with Kuwait's parliamentary human rights committee in investigating allegations of human rights abuses. The National Assembly human rights committee was established in 1991 after the end of the Gulf war. It holds regular hearings at which residents can present complaints without preliminary formalities. Between December 1992 and November 1994 the committee heard 685 complaints, but settled fewer than half of them. Palestinians filed 230 of the complaints, followed by Kuwaitis with 104 complaints.

Amnesty International Labels Syrian Human Rights "Appalling"

Amnesty International labeled Syria's human rights record "appalling" in a report issued April 10, and called upon the Syrian government to adopt "radical measures" to improve it. The London-based human rights organization said that "in Syria thousands of men and women remain in prison on political grounds at the mercy of the government security forces, who are subjecting them to gross human rights violations without any fear of accountability."

The human rights group called upon Syria to release all prisoners of conscience, report the fate of prisoners who have disappeared, investigate charges of torture, abolish the death penalty and provide judicial review of unfair trials of political prisoners.

Watching the Human Rights Watchers

Human Rights Watch, an American group, has criticized the Palestinian National Authority for alleged human rights violations. To assess the criticism, the PNA appointed an Independent Commission on Citizens Rights, headed by Hanan Ashrawi, former spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation at peace talks with Israel. Dr. Ashrawi commended the Human Rights Watch report. Her commission also has reported PNA violations including press intimidation, assaults on prisoners and detention of human rights lawyer Raji Sourani, who later was released.

In the U.S., Human Rights Watch assessed as "excellent" the most recent U.S. State Department human rights reports, which are based upon information gathered by U.S. embassies and consulates and which are designed to serve as one standard of judging whether or not the countries under examination are eligible for U.S. aid.

Holly Burkhalter, Washington, DC director of Human Rights Watch, said that this year's reports on Egypt and the Israeli-occupied territories contained no major omissions and were based on "fair, accurate reporting."

"We would criticize any evidence of political bias," she said. "In the past [such State Department reports] would downplay human rights abuses by Israelis in the occupied territories." Burkhalter called that practice "contemptible."

State Department Assesses Middle East Human Rights Violations

The U.S. State Department documented a series of human rights violations in Middle East countries during 1994 but also had some kind things to say about Syria and Saudi Arabia. Although it documented widespread torture and martial law in Syria, defended by Syria on the basis of the state of war with Israel and alleged threats by terrorist groups, the State Department report also noted that Syria had issued travel documents to all Syrian Jews who had requested them, and had prosecuted security officers for abuses.

The Department of State report also challenged a May 1994 report by Amnesty International that Saudi Arabian guards had tortured and beaten refugees from Iraq at the Rafha camp. The camp initially was built to house Iraqi prisoners of war. Since the war it has been used to house former Iraqi POWs who refused to return to Iraq, and refugees who have fled Saddam Hussain's regime. The State Department report said the allegations of abuse at the camp were inaccurate and exaggerated.

The State Department report criticized Israel for double standards in treatment of Israelis and Palestinians in the occupied territories, and for abuse of Palestinian detainees. Within Israel, the State Department reported that the Israeli government does not provide Israeli Arabs with the same quality of housing, employment, social services and education provided to Israeli Jews.

The State Department reported that Iran remains a major human rights abuser, showing no improvement in 1994, and continuing to execute several hundred people annually.

Iraq received the harshest criticism for what the State Department called an "abysmal" human rights record that worsened in several areas over the previous year. The report detailed the practice of torture by Iraqi authorities including amputation of ears and branding of foreheads of those accused of economic crimes and desertion from the military forces. In many cases the victims bled to death, the report charged.

In addition, Iraq tortured prisoners by dripping acid on them and with electric shocks, beatings, hot irons and rape, the State Department reported. During the year, Iraq also began amputating the right hands of those convicted of theft in line with traditional Islamic practice.