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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

NEWS SERVICE 96/94

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TO: PRESS OFFICERSAI INDEX: NWS 11/96/94

FROM: IS PRESS OFFICEDISTR: SC/PO

DATE: 6 MAY 1994 NO OF WORDS: 573

NEWS SERVICE ITEMS: EXTERNAL - CAMBODIA, GEORGIA

NEWS INITIATIVES - INTERNAL

INTERNATIONAL NEWS RELEASES

Saudi Arabia - 10 May - SEE NEWS SERVICE 62

Burundi - 17 May - SEE NEWS SERVICES 81/94, 53/94 and 36/94

China - 1 June - SEE NEWS SERVICE 81/94

Pakistan - 29 June - SEE NEWS SERVICE 81/94

TARGETED AND LIMITED NEWS RELEASES

FORTHCOMING NEWS INITIATIVES

Annual Report - 7 July - SEE NEWS SERVICE 51/94

News Service 96/94

AI INDEX: ASA 23/WU 02/94

6 MAY 1994

CAMBODIA: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS ON RCAF AND KHMER ROUGE TO RESPECT MINIMUM HUMANE STANDARDS

On 4 May, a wounded Khmer Rouge soldier was reportedly captured by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) and whilst undergoing interrogation his head was chopped off with an axe.

His head was subsequently seen by an international observer displayed on a wall outside the Joint Military Regional headquarters of the RCAF which is within Battambang city limits -- the country's second largest city situated in the northwest.

Amnesty International has received other recent reports of extrajudicial executions and "disappearances" occurring in the context of renewed hostilities between the RCAF and the forces of the National Army of Democratic Kampuchea (NADK) or Khmer Rouge.

The organization fears an increase in such incidents, and possible reprisals, unless both sides undertake to respect minimum international standards of humane behaviour.

In 1993, under a United Nations-sponsored peace accord, 90 per cent of Cambodia's electorate voted in democratic elections following over 20 years of civil war, violent revolution and foreign occupation. A new coalition government was formed, and the armed forces of each party within the government combined to form a new national army.

The Partie of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK), which signed the Peace Agreements, did not comply with the terms of the accord, and resumed armed conflict. Since August 1993, the new Royal Cambodian Armed Forces have launched several offensives against the forces of the NADK. The NADK recently began a major counter-offensive and hostilities between the two sides have reportedly resulted in the internal displacement of up to 60,000 people in the northwest of the country.

Amnesty International is calling on both sides to the conflict to respect minimum international standards of humane behaviour, in particular the provisions of 1949 Geneva Conventions protecting civilians and armed forces who are wounded or have laid down their arms.

ENDS/

News Service 96/94

AI INDEX: EUR 56/WU 01/94

6 MAY 1994

GEORGIA: AMNESTY CALLS FOR COMMUTATION OF IMMINENT DEATH SENTENCES

Amnesty International is gravely concerned by reports on 5 May that the Georgian Parliament voted to lift a two-year moratorium on carrying out death sentences leaving at least two men facing imminent execution.

The human rights organization urgently calls for Eduard Shevardnadze, Chairman of the Georgian parliament and head of state, to commute all pending death sentences to imprisonment.

Among those who may be executed following the lifting of the moratorium are Sergo Tidilov and Kakusha Grigolova. Both men had been sentenced to death for premeditated, aggravated murder, but no further details are currently available.

It is not known how many other people on death row may also now face execution in the absence, to Amnesty International's knowledge, of official statistics on the application of the death penalty.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without reservation on the grounds that it is a violation of the right to life and the right not to be subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

ENDS/