TNAG-2320-FCO40-3364-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 58

INTRODUCTION

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INTRODUCTION

The new decade opened against a background of dramatic political changes. Respect for fundamental human rights was at the heart of events. Across Eastern and Central Europe, prisoners of conscience were being freed

one, Vaclav Havel, became President of his country, and many others were assuming impor- tant roles in the new order. As the first year of the decade ended, Albania became the last country in Europe to legalize peaceful political dissent.

In Africa, Namibia voted strong human rights provisions into its new constitu- tion, and the release of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners signalled the start of negotiations for change in South Africa. Released prisoners of conscience re-entered political life in Benin and Zaire, but only a minority of prisoners of conscience had survived to do so when the Chadian Government was overthrown.

Protection of human rights was a central issue in efforts to resolve long- standing conflicts in El Salvador and Cambodia. In Chile, once synonymous with gross human rights violations such as "disappearances", extrajudicial executions and torture - abuses which still afflict several countries in the Americas - a new elected government was facing the complex task of establishing the truth about past violations.

An immediate or eventual end to executions was increasingly recognized as an essential aspect of respect for human rights. The death penalty was abolished in the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, Hungary, Mozambique and Namibia, as well as in Andorra, Ireland, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It was also abolished for ordinary offences in Nepal, while moratoriums on executions began in Bulgaria and South Africa.

But as the world struggled to keep up with one set of events, it was overtaken by another. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August was accompanied by mass extrajudicial killings, summary executions, torture and arrests of prisoners of conscience. Elsewhere in the Middle East, Syrian military action in Lebanon also saw summary executions; the Israeli response to Palestinian demonstrations or riots resulted in dozens of deaths; and Yemeni migrant workers were tortured before their expulsion from Saudi Arabia.

One lesson emerged clearly from both sets of events. There were many people in and out of government at the end of 1990 who had reason for deep shame - and sometimes self-interested regret at their failure to stand up against human rights violations in the past. It was only those brave individuals who had not bowed down to the repression of freedom of expression who commanded full respect when it was restored in countries of Eastern and Central Europe.

The Iraqi Government headed by President Saddam Hussein had been com- mitting gross and widespread human rights abuses for many years before the 1990 crisis. These included repeated massacres of Kurdish civilians by the Iraqi armed forces, sometimes using chemical weapons. In the face of such gross abuse, Amnesty International had appealed directly to the United Nations (UN)

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 1991