AI Index: NWS 11/45/91

Distr: SC/PO

No. of words: 1850

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Amnesty International

International Secretariat

1 Easton Street

London WC1X 8DJ

United Kingdom

TO: PRESS OFFICERS

FROM: PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS

DATE: 28 NOVEMBER 1991

WEEKLY UPDATE SERVICE 45/91

Contained in this weekly update are external items on Peru, Viet Nam, the

United Kingdom and Ethiopia and Eritrea.

In a Weekly Update item last week we said the freed Moroccan prisoner of

conscience Abraham Serfaty had been one of AI's 30th anniversary appeal

campaign cases. As some of you quite rightly pointed out, he was not.

Apologies for that, and thanks to those of you who let us know.

1. NEWS INITIATIVES - INTERNAL

Uganda - 4 December (New information)

Uganda - The National Resistance Army and human rights violations

AFR 59/20/91

You have been sent the news release, although you may not yet have received

the document, which has been held up.

Myanmar - 10 December (New information)

You have now been sent the news release on abuses in Myanmar, timed to

coincide with both Human Rights Day and Aung San Suu Kyi receiving the

Nobel Peace Prize. A short biography of Aung San Suu Kyi will also be sent

to you later this week.

Guinea - 12 December (New information)

A news release targeted only for Africa specialists.

Ghana - 18 December

Ghana - Political imprisonment and the death penalty

Targeted news release for African media to go with our first major report

on Ghana in recent times.

Weekly Update NWS 11/45/91

2. AMR 45/WU 04/91 EXTERNAL

28 November 1991

INTERNAL

This Weekly Update item accompanies a short document Some recent cases of

human rights violations (AI Index AMR 46/79/91).

EXTERNAL

PERU: FURTHER INFORMATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

On 21 November 1991 Amnesty International published an advertisement

in three Peruvian national daily newspapers calling on the government's

security forces and the armed opposition groups Sendero Luminoso (Shining

Path) and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement to respect human rights.

In the advertisement, the organization said that thousands of people

have been summarily killed and "disappeared" in Peru since 1980 and that a

sense of impunity pervades the armed forces. The organization also

unequivocally opposed and condemned deliberate and arbitrary killings by

Sendero Luminoso and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

Information about such atrocities has continued to reach Amnesty

International. The organization is concerned about a series of ten

"disappearances" and one extrajudicial execution in the Alto Huallaga area

between 8 August 1991 and 19 November 1991, all of them reportedly

perpetrated by the army. The organization has appealed to the authorities

to investigate urgently the "disappearances" and the killing.

Amnesty International is also concerned about the killing of 12 men,

three women and one nine-year-old child on 3 November 1991. Circumstances

suggest they may have been extrajudicially executed by the security forces

or by so-called paramilitary death-squads acting with their acquiescence.

The killing took place during a social gathering in the interior yard of a

building in the Barrios Altos district of Lima.

According to witnesses, about 10 assailants entered the yard,

shouting and ordering everybody to lie on the floor, before they shot them

using firearms fixed with silencers.

Neighbours reported that the assailants arrived in two vehicles, one

of which reportedly belonged to the Minister of the Interior and the other

to the office of the Presidency. After the incident, the authorities said

the vehicles had been stolen some time ago. The killings took place near

installations used by the police and the army.

According to official documents made available by a Peruvian senator,

the building had been watched since 1989 by a police intelligence group

which believed the building was frequented by Sendero Luminoso

sympathizers.

Amnesty International has urgently appealed to the authorities for a

thorough and impartial investigation immediately into the killings, and for

the safety of all witnesses to be guaranteed.

Amnesty International is further concerned about the continued

deliberate killing by Sendero Luminoso of people taking no active part in

the hostilities.

For example, in August 1991 members of Sendero Luminoso killed three

Catholic priests in the province of Santa, Ancash department. On 10 August

1991 two Polish Franciscans, Fr Zbigniew Strzalowski and Fr Michal

Tomaszek, were reportedly killed by members of Sendero Luminoso while

speaking with a group of young Peruvians. On 25 August 1991 an Italian

priest, Alessandro Dordi Negroni, was reportedly shot in the face three

times by members of Sendero Luminoso. He died instantly.

Weekly Update NWS 11/45/91

3. AMR 41/WU 01/91 EXTERNAL

28 November 1991

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM: NGUYEN CHI THIEN AND THREE OTHER POCS FREED

Four well-known prisoners of conscience have reportedly been freed in the

Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.

According to information received by Amnesty International, Nguyen

Chi Thien, a long-term prisoner of conscience and one of AI's 30th

anniversary campaign appeal cases, was released on 22 October 1991 from a

"re-education camp" after serving more than 12 years without charge or

trial.

AI has also received information that Father Joseph Le Thanh Que, a

Jesuit priest held since 12 December 1980, Doan Quoc Sy, a well-known

writer held since 2 May 1984, and Duong Thu Huong, a prominent woman writer

and dramatist detained since 13 April 1991, have also been released.

Nguyen Chi Thien was first arrested in 1958 and sentenced to two

years' hard labour in a "re-education camp" for his part in the publication

of a literary magazine during the time of the "Hundred Flowers" campaign, a

period of relative free expression in North Viet Nam. He was released in

1961, but returned to a "re-education camp" the same year and declared an

"underdeveloped citizen". After his release in September 1964 he remained

free until October 1965 when he was sent again to a "re-education camp"

where he was detained for almost 13 years.

On his release in 1978 he returned to his home town of Hai Phong

where he continued to write poetry and teach English and French to private

students. He was arrested again in April 1979 for giving a manuscript of

his poems to a foreign diplomat in Ha Noi. His detention was not

acknowledged by the Vietnamese authorities until May 1988 when it was

announced that he was awaiting trial.

Nguyen Chi Thien has spent more than half his life in prison for the

peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression.

Father Le Thanh Que was released on 1 September 1991. A Roman

Catholic priest, he was arrested on 12 December 1980, accused of being

"counter-revolutionary", and sentenced in June 1983 to 15 years'

imprisonment. He has reportedly been suffering from psychological

disorders.

Doan Quoc Sy, a writer, was arrested in 1984 accused of "propaganda

against socialism". After a trial in 1988 he was sentenced to nine years'

imprisonment, later apparently reduced to eight years, and was released on

4 November 1991.

Duong Thu Huong was released on 20 November 1991. A prominent writer

and dramatist, she was arrested on 13 April 1991 and held without charge or

trial reportedly for trying to send sensitive documents out of the country.

Amnesty International welcomes their releases from imprisonment, but

notes that they were all imprisoned for exercizing their fundamental human

rights. Amnesty International is currently seeking to ascertain what

conditions, if any, have been attached to their releases.

Several dozen other political prisoners, many of them long-term

prisoners of conscience, continue to be held in Vietnamese prisons or under

house arrest. They include writers, members of religious groups,

professionals and people associated with the former government of the

Republic of Viet Nam (South Viet Nam). Amnesty International continues to

call upon the Vietnamese authorities to release immediately and

unconditionally all prisoners of conscience, and to ensure that trials of

political prisoners meet international standards of fair trial.

Weekly Update NWS 11/45/91

4. EUR 45/WU 05/91 EXTERNAL

28 November 1991

UNITED KINGDOM: BROADWATER FARM CONVICTION QUASHED AFTER EVIDENCE DEEMED

QUESTIONABLE

Amnesty International welcomed the appeal court's decision on 25 November

that quashed Winston Silcott's 30-year sentence for murder, riot and affray

after hearing that the chief investigating officer had altered key police

notes that led to the conviction.

The court reserved judgment on the convictions of Engin Raghip and

Mark Braithwaite, the two other co-defendants charged with the same

offences. Judgment may be delivered within the next few weeks.

The human rights organization also called for an immediate review of

other convictions based solely on confessions that took place in the

aftermath of riots at the Broadwater Farm housing estate in London in

November 1985.

Winston Silcott, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite were convicted on

the basis of uncorroborated confession evidence in March 1987 of the murder

of police officer Keith Blakelock and of riot and affray and sentenced to

life imprisonment. They were arrested along with approximately 360 others.

In February 1989 AI questioned the fairness of trials that followed

the riot. Suspects, including juveniles, were held in incommunicado

detention. They were denied legal access and were interrogated in the

absence of lawyers. They were denied access to family members. Some were

allegedly tricked by the police into signing documents waiving their

rights.

AI was concerned by claims that people had been forced or threatened

into making confessions. Many detainees claimed they had admitted to lesser

charges under threat of murder charges, or other threats.

AI stated that doubt existed about the safety of the convictions

based on contested statements made in the absence of a lawyer. AI requested

that the government review the cases of all those convicted solely on the

basis of confessions. As far as the organization is aware, 19 people were

convicted of serious offences on the basis of their confessions.

Furthermore AI urged the government to carry out a wide-ranging

inquiry into the overall pattern of police behaviour during the police

investigation of the Broadwater Farm riot. From the many allegations made

by detainees, AI was concerned about a pattern of police behaviour which

put at risk the fairness of trial proceedings.

The Prosecution stated at the Court of Appeal hearing on 27 November

that if the apparent dishonesty of the senior officer in charge of the

murder investigation had been known in 1987, then prosecutions would not

have been brought. The prosecutor said: "We say unequivocally we would not

have gone on against Raghip and Braithwaite or any of the other defendants

having learned of the apparent dishonesty of the officer in charge of the

case." The prosecution acknowledged that Detective Superintendent Melvin

was responsible for Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite being denied access

to a lawyer.

Weekly Update NWS 11/45/91

5. AFR 25/WU 05/91 EXTERNAL

28 November 1991

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION TO VISIT ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA

Amnesty International representatives are due to visit Ethiopia and Eritrea

between 2 and 14 December 1991 for meetings with the governments in Addis

Ababa and Asmara about human rights.

The delegation will be led by Maître Bacre Waly Ndiaye, a lawyer from

Senegal, who until recently was Vice-Chairperson of Amnesty International's

International Executive Committee. In both Ethiopia and Eritrea the

delegates plan to meet members of the government. They will also meet other

relevant officials and people concerned about human rights issues which

fall within Amnesty International's mandate.

These will be the organization's first talks with the Transitional

Government of Ethiopia and the Provisional Government of Eritrea, following

the overthrow six months ago of President Mengistu Haile-Mariam's

government, which had been responsible for gross human rights violations

over a long period. An earlier informal visit to Addis Ababa was made in

July 1991 by Amnesty International representatives who met newly released

political prisoners and other people.