AI Index: NWS 11/29/92

Distr: SC/PO

No. of words: 1357

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Amnesty International

International Secretariat

1 Easton Street

London WC1X 8DJ

United Kingdom

TO: PRESS OFFICERS

FROM: PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS

DATE: 22 JULY 1992

WEEKLY UPDATE SERVICE 29/92

Contained in this weekly update are external items on Iran and China.

1. SECTION INITIATIVES

Annual Report - 9 July

The Annual Report seems to have been a big media success and we'd like to

confirm this by gathering all the international press clippings that we can

- particularly in the light of the changed embargo time.

If you have not already done so, please would you send copies of your

national media coverage to the IS Press Office.

Syria Q&A - correction

Please note that the AI Index of the Syria questions and answers should be

"MDE 24/20/92".

Good News Video - Correction

Please note that in the script of the Good News Compilation 1991-1992,

which was distributed recently together with the 1992 Annual Report

Electronic News Release, the first two lines of the second paragraph of

statement 7 (Ibrahim Serfaty) should read: "Personally, the first letter

came to me from a group in western Austria" (ie. not "Western Australia").

INTERNATIONAL NEWS RELEASES

Uganda - 9 September

A report, news release and FOB (fold out brochure) to go with a campaign

focusing on extrajudicial executions, detention and torture.

Indigenous People's Campaign - 7 October

Discussions are currently under way at the IS about the media strategy for

the report. We are currently considering media materials, speakers, how to

present the material, etc. As this is the first time we have done a report

like this, we would like your input and think there should be an

opportunity to discuss problems in advance. If you are interested in a

telephone conference call, please let us know.

Myanmar - 28 October (New Information)

A report and news release on Myanmar, to go with a campaign to coincide

with the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Targeted and Limited News Releases

Somalia - 29 July (New Information)

A limited news release is being prepared to go with a short document

Somalia: A Human Rights Disaster. The document deals with a massacre of

civilians in April 1992 and other human rights violations in the context of

the civil war. The news release will be with you by the end of the week

and the document is being faxed to sections which have a co-ordinator on

Somalia. If any other sections wish to have the document, please contact

the IS. Sorry for the short notice, but as Somalia is currently in the

news, we felt it was worth the rush.

Haiti - 26 August

The embargo date of this targeted news release is now confirmed at 26

August. The document is about human rights violations since the coup last

September.

Weekly Update NWS 11/29/92

2. MDE 13/WU 05/92 EXTERNAL

22 July 1992

IRAN: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR FAIR TRIALS FOR POLITICAL DETAINEES

Amnesty International is issuing a nine-page report this week entitled

Iran: Unfair trials of political detainees (AI Index: MDE 13/15/92),

describing its long-standing concerns regarding political trials in the

Islamic Republic of Iran. (The report will be available in Farsi in

September).

Political trials in Iran fall far short of internationally accepted

standards for fair trial. Trial hearings are almost always held secretly

inside prisons. Proceedings are summary and there is no possibility for

the detainee's family or even his/her lawyer to attend. There is no right

of appeal to a higher tribunal. Thousands of political prisoners have been

executed and an unknown number sentenced to prison terms following unfair

trials which often lasted only a few minutes.

A new Parliamentary Act on detainees' access to legal counsel was

approved in October 1991, but it fails to guarantee fundamental safeguards

provided in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

(ICCPR), to which Iran is a State Party. Amnesty International knows of no

political trial, since the Act came into force, where detainees have been

given access to legal counsel, and no provision appears to have been made

for the re-trial of those political prisoners who have been tried without

the benefit of legal counsel.

Amnesty International considers it to be a fundamental principle of

any meaningful defence that lawyers are allowed to carry out their

professional duties without fear of intimidation and pressure from the

authorities. The absence of an independent association of lawyers in Iran

undermines this principle in practice and adds to Amnesty International's

concerns about unfair trials procedures in Iran.

Recently, the organization expressed its concerns regarding mass

arrests, unfair trials and summary executions following riots and

demonstrations in a number of Iranian towns, including Mashhad, Shiraz,

Arak and Bukan. At least eight people were executed and five others

sentenced to death in connection with the riots. Amnesty International

fears that the actual number of executions may be considerably higher.

That some of the sentences were passed and carried out within 10 days of

arrest leads the organization to conclude that the defendants are unlikely

to have been given sufficient time to prepare their defence or to appeal

against the verdicts, and that other vital safeguards for fair trial in

capital cases, provided for in international human rights treaties, were

lacking.

Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the Government of the

Islamic Republic of Iran to introduce basic legal safeguards as a matter of

urgency, so that every political detainee's right to a fair trial, in

accordance with Articles 6, 14 and 15 of the ICCPR, is guaranteed in law

and practice. Amnesty International's concerns, as described in Iran:

Unfair trials of political detainees, have been conveyed on numerous

occasions to the appropriate authorities in Iran, most recently in a letter

dated 29 April 1992. By mid-July 1992 Amnesty International had received

no response to its latest communication. Previous responses to some of the

organization's requests for clarification have not allayed Amnesty

International's fears regarding continuing serious human rights violations

in Iran.

Weekly Update NWS 11/29/92

3. ASA 17/WU 05/92 EXTERNAL

22 July 1992

CHINA: SENIOR COMMUNIST PARTY OFFICIAL BAO TONG IS MADE SCAPEGOAT FOR 1989

PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTS

Bao Tong, a close associate of the deposed Chinese Communist Party leader

Zhao Ziyang, was tried behind closed doors in Beijing on 21 July 1992 and

sentenced to seven years imprisonment after being found guilty of "leaking

state secrets" and "counter-revolutionary incitement".

Before his arrest on 28 May 1989, Bao Tong was a member of the

Chinese Communist party central Committee (CCPCC) and Director of the now-

disbanded CCPCC Research Centre for Reform of the Political Structure. He

is the most senior official to have been arrested in connection with the

1989 pro-democracy protests and later accused of having contributed to the

so-called "counter-revolutionary turmoil" in Beijing in May and June 1989.

According to various reports, Bao Tong's trial lasted four or five

hours and was closed to the public. Bao Tong was represented by two defence

lawyers but his family was barred from the court except for ten minutes at

the end of the trial when a panel of three judges announced the sentence.

Scores of plainclothes and uniformed security officers ringed the court

where he was tried and kept onlookers at bay. No official information has

been made public about the proceedings followed at the trial or the nature

of the evidence on which the charges were based.

The charges against Bao Tong are believed to be based solely on

private political comments which he made to some associates during the

tense period which preceded the imposition of martial law in Beijing on 20

May 1989. To the best of Amnesty International's knowledge, there is no

evidence that he "incited" others in relation to the student protests

taking place at that time. Bao Tong was arrested eight days after the

imposition of martial law in Beijing and illegally held without charge for

over two and a half years. In January 1992, he was finally charged with

"leaking state secrets" and "counter-revolutionary incitement".

Amnesty International believes that Bao Tong is a prisoner of

conscience held solely for the peaceful exercise of fundamental human

rights. The organization has called on the Chinese authorities to release

him immediately and unconditionally. It is also calling for full details

of the trial proceedings and the evidence on which the charges are based to

be made public.

AI Index: NWS 11/29/92 ADD

Distr: SC/PO

No. of words: 295

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Amnesty International

International Secretariat

1 Easton Street

London WC1X 8DJ

United Kingdom

TO: PRESS OFFICERS

FROM: PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS

DATE: 24 JULY 1992

ADDITION TO WEEKLY UPDATE SERVICE 29/92

Contained in this weekly update is an internal item on Nicaragua.

NEWS INITIATIVES

**IMPORTANT - Somalia - Embargo change**

Unfortunately there have been some delays at the approval stages of the Somalia report and news release - which was planned to be embargoed at short notice for Wednesday 29 July. On Monday afternoon the IS Press Office will be informed of when the documents are likely to be ready and a new embargo date will be decided on accordingly. Please expect a note to press officers to update you.

Weekly Update NWS 11/29/92 ADD

1. AMR 43/WU 03/92 INTERNAL FOR RESPONSE

24 July 1992

UPDATE -

NICARAGUA: AI CONCERNED AT PROPOSED TIGHTENING OF LAWS ON HOMOSEXUALITY

Follow up to AMR 43/WU 02/92

Amnesty International wrote on 30 June 1992 to President Chamorro of Nicaragua to express concerns at a proposed amendment to Article 205¹of the penal code which AI fears could allow for the imprisonment of people for advocating homosexual rights or for homosexual acts in private between consenting adults.

The proposed legislation has been neither ratified nor vetoed by the President, although the deadline (15 days following receipt from the National Assembly) has passed. The National Assembly is authorised to publish the legislation, thus bringing it into force, once the ratification deadline has passed. However, the Assembly is currently in recess and the legislation has not been published.

Sections will be informed as soon as there is any change in the status of the legislation.