EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA 251 OVERVIEW

Human Rights Developments in Russian custody guards and riot police The civilian carnage in Chechnya and the tortured many of them systematically. further entrenchment of authoritarian gov- The international community often la- ernments in Central Asia dominated human mented that it had no significant influence rights concerns in 2000. The democratic de- over Russia, but squandered real opportuni- feat of Slobodan Milosevic, who had laid ties for leverage or sanctions in favor of waste to democracy in Serbia and instigated political expediency. During one of the war’s the deadly Balkan wars, held out hope of a bleakest moments the World Bank refused to new hope for peace and rule of law in the withhold credit payments to the Russian Balkans. But the international community’s general budget. The U.S. government and selectivity in using leverage hindered efforts other member states refused even to entertain for positive change in human rights in the the notion of conditionality. A U.N. Com- region, especially in the crises in Chechnya mission on Human Rights resolution might and Central Asia. While the victory of Vojislav have had a positive impact, but the member Kostunica over Milosevic was strongly sup- states who so commendably sponsored it ported by the lifting of international sanc- stood idle as Russia ignored the resolution’s tions, governments were reluctant to take a requirements. Chief among them was that strong position on the need to bring Milosevic, Russia establish a national commission of an indicted war criminal, before the Interna- inquiry that would lead to prosecutions for tional Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugo- abuse. In a more principled move, the Council slavia (ICTY), as well as the broader issue of of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly voted cooperation with ICTY. to suspend Russia’s delegation. The international community lacked the The blatant impunity for war crimes in political will to exercise leverage with Russia Chechnya cried out for accountability, but to press for a halt to the massive abuses there was none. This failure quickly became perpetrated by Russian forces in Chechnya. obvious, but governments were unwilling to This stood in stunning contrast to interna- take up a more robust commitment to inter- tional engagement in other crises in the world, national justice as they had in other parts of notably East Timor, but was regrettably the world. No member state of the Commis- consistent with the international community’s sion on Human Rights had the courage to response to the 1994-1996 war in Chechnya. insist, for example, on an international com- The pattern of impunity for abuse that so mission of inquiry, which would have neces- easily prevailed in that war persisted in the sarily invoked higher standards of rigor and current war, as Russia clearly sensed it had impartiality than the wan Russian effort. nothing to lose by prosecuting the war with- Council of Europe member states declined to out thought to civilian costs or to the conse- lodge an interstate complaint at the European quences of wanton brutality. Court of Human Rights. Unlike the Kosovo Russian forces’ violations of humanitar- conflict, where the international community ian law in the current war, which began in late responded quickly to the needs of ethnic 1999, caused some thousands of civilian ca- Albanian refugees, security concerns and a sualties, the result of indiscriminate bombing. lack of international interest meant that many The capital of Chechnya, Grozny, was razed of the needs of displaced Chechens went to the ground. At least 125 civilians were unmet. Food, safe water, medical care, gas, summarily executed in three massacres. Thou- wood supplies, and electricity were provided sands of Chechens were detained arbitrarily haphazardly and often ran out. Most children on suspicion of rebel collaboration, and once had their education disrupted, and during the 252 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW

early days of the war, disease and exposure credible evidence of torture. claimed the lives of some displaced persons. Symbolic of the Uzbek government’s As corruption and grinding poverty wors- confidence that concern about terrorism ened in Central Asia, fighting terrorism and trumped its human rights obligations was its “religious extremism” was an overwhelming decision in October not to appear to defend concern both to national governments other- its initial report to the U.N. Human Rights wise intent on maintaining their grip on power, Committee on the day it convened. The and to the international community. This government’s explanation was that officials came at the expense of human rights and a needed to prepare for a conference on terror- long-term vision for the rule of law in the ism. region. Uzbekistan’s unrelenting crackdown Governments in other parts of Central against political and religious dissenters con- Asia continued the drift toward worsening tinued unabated, and authoritarianism deep- authoritarianism by manipulating elections, ened in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and harassing the media, and jailing political rivals Tajikistan. on trumped-up charges. The government of For the second time in two years, vio- Kyrgyzstan employed these with a ven- lence erupted in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. geance this year, which sobered those who In August pitched battles erupted between still considered that country to be Central armed insurgents and government troops in Asia’s “island of democracy.” The Kyrgyz southeastern Uzbekistan and neighboring government jailed prominent opposition can- Kyrgyzstan. Thousands were displaced from didates before the October presidential elec- their homes by the clashes. The group re- tions, persistently harassed the opposition sponsible, the so-called Islamic Movement of media, and drove some nongovernment orga- Uzbekistan, demanded that the Uzbek gov- nization activists into exile. The government ernment release what the group claimed were of Kazakhstan, firmly entrenched after last an estimated 100,000 wrongfully jailed Mus- year’s deeply flawed elections, continued to lim prisoners and allow for the observance of harass opposition media and political figures. Islamic law precepts, including permission The Tajik government flagrantly manipu- for Muslim women to wear the veil. lated the February ballot to guarantee the Some observers viewed the August vio- election of a parliament dominated by the lence as the self-fulfilling prophesy of the ruling party. In November 1999, government’s multi-year campaign against Turkmenistan, one of the most repressive “religious extremism,” the product of fierce countries in the world, held utterly hollow and violent repression of thousands of Uzbek parliamentary elections, followed by an in- citizens. This year the government’s cam- definite extension of the president’s term in paign to stop the spread of “religious extrem- office. ism” expanded and caused pervasive fear. Once again, the international commu- Hundreds more independent Muslims who nity chose not to use available policy tools to chose to study Islam or worship outside effect change or take a principled stand. This government-controlled religious institutions was particularly true of the United States joined thousands imprisoned in previous government, which was concerned about los- years. Many were sentenced to long prison ing its influence in Central Asia to Russia by terms, for alleged membership in illegal reli- putting too much emphasis on human rights. gious organizations, or distributing religious Yet the U.S. and its European allies were in leaflets not approved by the state. They were unique positions to deliver the economic often arrested on trumped-up charges of assistance that Central Asian countries badly illegal possession of narcotics, weapons, or want, whereas Russian influence served to religious literature, held incommunicado and weaken these countries’ independence. The denied legal counsel, and convicted in grossly U.S. government declined to interpret the unfair trials at which judges routinely ignored crackdown in Uzbekistan as one targeting EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW 253 people for their religious convictions, and for who became head of the Federal Security this reason did not name Uzbekistan as a Service, the KBG’s successor. Despite nu- country of particular concern in the area of merous public assurances of support for religious freedom under the 1998 Interna- democratic values, Putin’s conduct of the war tional Religious Freedom Act. By contrast, in Chechnya and his impulse to stifle critical Serbia was considered a country of particular media coverage fuelled fears of growing concern. The U.S. Department of State certi- authoritarianism in Russia. fied Uzbekistan as eligible for U.S. security Political developments in Serbia and assistance, available under U.S. law only to Croatia toward the rule of law were con- countries committed to upholding interna- trasted sharply, and positively, with those in tional human rights standards. the former Soviet Union. Perhaps the most The European Union (E.U.), for its part, dramatic event of the year was the deposing resisted using its lucrative trade agreements of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic with Central Asian countries to press for and the election of Vojislav Kostunica as human rights improvements. And the Orga- president. Milosevic had attempted to re- nization for Security and Cooperation in main in power by staging early presidential Europe (OSCE), the chief regional organiza- elections on September 24. The stakes were tion with a mandate to strengthen human high, as Milosevic no doubt wanted to avoid rights, emphasized economic and security facing trial by the ICTY. For the first time cooperation instead, an approach that failed facing a united opposition, the government to yield any progress on human rights. OSCE had engaged in an unparalleled effort to ensure missions in Central Asia did not engage in victory by intimidating, at times violently, regular, frank, public reporting on the human opposition members and movements, and rights situation in the region; this was a glaring brazenly rigging the electoral process. De- failure, particularly when juxtaposed against spite these obstacles, the opposition pre- the massive and laudable public documenta- vailed in the vote. When Milosevic tried to tion and reporting effort undertaken in force a run-off, citizens took the streets, Kosovo. seizing the parliament and television station Authoritarianism deepened in other and ultimately forced Milosevic to acknowl- parts of the former Soviet Union as well. edge his defeat. Under President Alexander Lukashenka, the Milosevic’s departure from power meant Belarus government continued to jail opposi- new hope for the rule of law and human rights tion figures, drive the opposition media to protections in Serbia. At year’s end, top bankruptcy, and intimidate human rights or- concerns were Serbia’s cooperation with the ganizations with abandon. Its October parlia- ICTY, including the transferal of Milosevic mentary election process was deeply biased and other indicted war criminals hiding in to favor pro-government parties, which pre- Serbia to The Hague, the release of hundreds vailed on election day thanks to falsified of Kosovo Albanian political prisoners, re- election results. In Azerbaijan as well, prior storing the independence of the judiciary, and to the November parliamentary elections, the bringing to justice police and security forces government attempted to exclude major op- responsible for serious abuses under position parties and many individual candi- Milosevic. dates from participating. Following the death of Croatian presi- In December 1999, Russian President dent Franjo Tudjman, the opposition came to Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned. Vladmir power in the presidency and parliament in Putin was elected president in March, riding early 2000. Important progress in human a tide of domestic popularity with carefully- rights quickly followed. The new government controlled information about the war in began a policy of full cooperation with the Chechnya and promises to get tough on crime ICTY by transferring an indictee to the Hague and corruption. Putin was a career KGB agent and allowing the ICTY access to investigate 254 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW

the sites of alleged 1991 war crimes against tinued to resist their arrest. No longer able to Serbs. There were positive changes in gover- argue that Karadzic and Mladic were so nance and minority rights as well. The govern- prominent in Bosnia that their arrest would ment made a dramatic commitment to the ignite popular protest and retaliation against right of Serb refugees to return to Croatia and the international community, opponents of backed this up with a financial commitment, the arrests shifted to arguing that these figures legislative reform that promised equal treat- had become so sidelined in Bosnia that their ment for all returnees, and the creation of a detention was no longer necessary to the new government structure to facilitate re- peace process. turns. International agencies bore responsibil- The international community had in- ity for guaranteeing human rights in several of sisted on cooperation with The Hague as a the region’s major postconflict zones they condition for loans and other important ben- oversaw in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Tajikistan. efits to Croatia. After the fall of Milosevic, In Kosovo and Tajikistan, these agencies however, the international community wa- displayed a disturbing tendency to rush the vered in its commitment to press for coopera- holding of elections in order to satisfy a pre- tion with the ICTY. While legitimately ac- determined political schedule, even where the knowledging the difficulties for the new au- conditions for elections to be free, fair, and thorities if Kostunica attempted to arrest and meaningful were absent, overlooking the harm- transfer Slobodan Milosevic to the ICTY, the ful way in which serious, ongoing human international community also appeared to rights problems undermine the prospects for postpone indefinitely the whole issue of long-term peace and democracy. cooperation with ICTY from its agenda with In Kosovo, a de facto protectorate of the Serbia, rather than insisting on deliverable international community after the 1999 war interim measures such as the start of negotia- between NATO and Serbia, steady violence tions between the ICTY and the new authori- imperiled the lives of non-Albanians, who ties on access for ICTY investigators, discus- were for the most part confined to mono- sions on the opening of an ICTY office in ethnic enclaves and were unable to travel Belgrade, and the transfer of official docu- without KFOR peacekeepers as escorts. ments necessary for the ICTY’s investiga- Kidappings, drive-by shootings, fire-bomb- tions. The international community’s appar- ing of homes, and grenade explosions were ent willingness to compromise cooperation combined with threats and harassment by with ICTY as a condition of upgraded rela- Albanians to force ethnic minorities to leave tions with Belgrade made it appear as though the province. NATO-led KFOR forces and Serbia was receiving special treatment as United Nations Civil Police, which together compared to Croatia and Bosnia. had full responsibility for policing and secu- Between October 1999 and October rity respectively, were either unable or un- 2000, eight indicted war criminals were ar- willing to confront the armed elements of the rested by NATO forces in Bosnia and trans- former Kosovo Liberation Army and others ferred to The Hague. Another indicted war implicated in the violence. U.N. police often criminal killed himself in the course of an lacked the resources and cooperation ad- October 2000 NATO arrest operation. Croatia equately to investigate and arrest those re- also transferred one indictee to the tribunal in sponsible. While the United Nations’ peace 2000. Nonetheless, at this writing, wartime implementation mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and oversaw the administration of justice, the Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic remained courts were staffed primarily by local judges at large. Although most North Atlantic Treaty whose rulings raised serious questions about Organization (NATO) member government the impartiality of justice. officials continued to insist that they would The 1996 Bosnian example demon- eventually see their day in court, some con- strated that rushed elections in a postconflict EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW 255 situation could serve to legitimize further Croatia’s new commitment to returns was some parties and leaders which had been effective in encouraging the return of ethnic responsible for gross abuses, but the interna- Serbs: more than 10,000 returned during 2000, tional community chose to overlook this the highest number since the mass exodus of important lesson. Kosovo’s first postwar more than 200,000 in 1995. elections, scheduled for October 28, were by In Serbia and Montenegro, about 230,000 all measures premature, driven more by the persons were displaced from the Kosovo desire to meet a predetermined deadline set by conflict and the postconflict persecution of the Rambouillet agreement than the need to minorities, and 500,000 were refugees from create the minimum conditions and set the Croatia and Bosnia. This burden continued to framework for long-term democracy. All but strain the resources of Serbia and Montenegro. a handful of Serbs and many other minorities Minority rights violations accompanied boycotted registration, rendering them ineli- returns in Croatia and Bosnia, and were a gible to vote. Political violence resulted in the problem elsewhere in the region. Bosniak deaths of at least nine people affiliated with returnees to Republica Srpska were the vic- the Democratic League of Kosovo or parties tims of violent attacks in March and July. linked to the former KLA, and there were Serb returnees to Croatia continued to face politically motivated attacks on journalists. discrimination at the hands of local authori- Whereas in Kosovo the international ties, despite a raft of new antidiscrimination community accepted premature elections in measures adopted by the new government in order to speed along the province’s political Zagreb, and Serb and Croat communities development, in Tajikistan the United Na- remained deeply mistrustful of one another. tions (U.N.) presided over parliamentary Roma continued to suffer shocking lev- elections in utterly inhospitable conditions as els of harassment, violent attacks, and mali- part of its strategy to hasten the end of its own cious discrimination in Croatia, Hungary, peacekeeping operation. The result for hu- Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Serbia, man rights was disastrous. A 1997 U.N.- Macedonia, and Slovakia, marring much of brokered peace agreement ending that the region’s record of progress on other hu- country’s civil war envisioned the elections, man rights issues. Law enforcement authori- held in February 2000, as the last step in the ties in all of these countries typically did not implementation of the agreement. But oppo- investigate violent attacks on Roma. Roma sition parties were excluded from the vote, children often lacked access to education in there was widespread fraud, the media was Croatia, and in the Czech republic they were clearly biased, and the overall rights situation disproportionally channeled into classes for was extremely poor. The vote served to the mentally disabled. Municipalities in Serbia, legitimate the current president rather than to Croatia, Hungary, and Greece forced Roma to serve U.N. goals of democratization. abandon their homes, usually citing spurious In Bosnia, members of minority groups zoning laws. Roma were evicted from their returned in significant numbers for the first homes in Athens to clear land for facilities for time since the end of the war. In the first six the 2004 Olympics. In July, a municipal months of 2000, the United Nations High bulldozer, accompanied by the mayor and Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regis- police, demolished numerous Roma huts in tered nearly 20,000 minority returns in the Athens Aspropyrgos suburb. Greek and Bosnia, nearly three times the number re- Albanian Roma families in the settlement corded for the same period in 1999, thanks in situated on a garbage dump were ordered to part to focused international effort. With the leave within three days. In Bulgaria, villagers success, however, has come a drop in funds refused to allow Roma in public places and from donor nations, even though a sustained, threatened them with expulsion after an un- longer-term level of funding is necessary for resolved murder. Roma homes in Macedonia the return of Bosnia’s remaining refugees. were burned down in suspicious circum- 256 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW

stances in the village of Stip. Roma homes in criminal libel statutes were enforced in Greece the village were the target of earlier arson and Romania. The governments of Azerbaijan, attacks in 1992. And in a Serbian town, Roma Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan made liberal were banned from a public pool. use of prohibitive libel suits to bankrupt Torture of detainees reached crisis pro- critical media. In September a Turkish court portions in government arrest campaigns in acquitted Nadire Mater who had been charged Uzbekistan and Russia (Chechnya). These with “insulting the armed forces” for writing crises were not aberrations, however, since Mehmet’s Book: Soldiers Who Have Fought torture had been part and parcel of the crimi- in the Southeast Tell Their Stories. Unfortu- nal justice systems of both countries for nately, this was not part of a broader pattern years. Torture of detainees held in Russian of improvements in freedom of expression. custody in Chechnya followed the same Turkish media and politicians furiously de- methods and patterns as torture perpetrated bated many issues and openly criticized the against common suspects in Moscow or government, but those who contradicted the Irkutsk. Similarly, torture to coerce testi- official line on the role of ethnicity, religion, mony from people arrested in the crackdown or the military in politics continued to risk against independent Islam in Uzbekistan was prosecution and imprisonment. systematic. Governments made little progress this Torture remained common in Turkey year protecting women from violence in armed and was used to coerce testimony and confes- conflict, domestic violence, trafficking, and sions in both common criminal cases and discrimination. Credible information sur- security-related cases. In a positive develop- faced about rape of the Chechen women by ment that suggested heightened government Russian forces, both in detention centers and acknowledgment of the problem, the Turkish during community sweep operations. Even parliament’s Human Rights Commission in postwar periods, women’s human rights published nine detailed reports documenting were not protected. Kosovar women con- the persistence of torture. The commission fronted discrimination, domestic violence, was able to find and photograph torture rape, trafficking, and abductions following implements and a “torture room” described to the war. Particularly in the former Soviet it by victims. This was chilling testimony to Union, those who trafficked women for work the credibility of torture victims, whom gov- in the sex industry continued to operate with ernments often dismiss as unreliable or bi- impunity, while governments offered thor- ased. oughly inadequate protection to women will- Several factors accounted for the persis- ing to come forward as witnesses to this tence of torture, among them impunity and crime. Police made no visible progress in poor due process protections, especially in promoting among their ranks a better re- countries of the former Soviet Union. Some sponse to domestic violence. In Uzbekistan, countries began to make progress toward local governments compounded the problem reforming due process to prevent torture, but by pressuring women to stay in abusive backtracking also occurred. Azerbaijan, where marriages in order to keep the divorce rate torture was widespread, adopted legislation low. that for the first time required detainees to be brought before a judge within forty-eight Defending Human Rights hours. Last year Georgia repealed important The treatment of human rights defend- due process reforms, and took no steps this ers varied widely in the region. In some places year to restore them. they were able to initiate groundbreaking The governments of nearly all Central work, review national legislation, and seek Asia states took steps to restrict or control remedies for abuse in domestic courts and at the Internet. In a positive move, Croatia the European Court of Human Rights. In decriminalized most aspects of libel, but others, governments went to great lengths to EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW 257 curtail their activities and undermine their and postconflict zones. The Russian govern- credibility. ment carefully controlled access to Chechnya, On October 16, Antonio Russo, a jour- making human rights reporting directly from nalist who had documented humanitarian law the conflict zone extremely difficult. Human violations in Chechnya, was killed near his Rights Watch was repeatedly denied access home in Georgia. to Chechnya, and Memorial, a leading Rus- Some human rights defenders in the sian group, faced many problems with its region have had to operate in exceedingly work there. A coalition of Russian NGOs hostile circumstances. The record was ex- urged Council of Europe member states to file tremely poor in Uzbekistan, where the gov- an interstate complaint against Russia with ernment had a history of jailing human rights the European Court of Human Rights. In activists and denying registration to human Kosovo, the compounding effects of years of rights nongovernmental organizations repression, armed conflict, and the resulting (NGOs). This year the government failed to inter-ethnic animosity made local human release two activists and continued to harass rights reporting extremely difficult. those who brought their cases to human rights In Europe, defenders actively took up defenders. It frequently denied defenders discrimination and violence against Roma, access to public trials. often among the most marginalized groups in In Serbia, activists, braving constant and the region. Defenders in Romania and the baseless accusations of being NATO spies, Czech Republic lodged cases of discrimina- defended ethnic Albanian political prisoners’ tion against Roma with the European Court right to due process. One Serbian defender, of Human Rights. In Greece, human rights Bojan Aleksov, was tortured by police. defenders were able in one case to halt tempo- In Kyrgyzstan the environment for de- rarily the eviction of Roma. Hungarian Roma fenders dramatically deteriorated, even as families from Zamoly fled to France, applied local defenders gained broader exposure to the for asylum, and lodged a complaint against international community. The government Hungary for failing to protect them from accused some activists of “destabilizing the discrimination and violence with the Euro- social order” and threatened one of the pean Court of Human Rights. country’s most active defenders with arrest, driving him into exile. Turkmenistan refused The Role of the International to allow human rights monitoring of any sort. Community Governments employed a range of tac- tics to impede the work of human rights United Nations organizations. The government in Serbia sub- Throughout the year, various U.N. ac- jected several human rights organizations to tors voiced concern about violations of hu- groundless tax inspections. The Azerbaijani man rights and humanitarian law in Chechnya, government banned prominent NGOs from but lacking political support from key mem- monitoring elections. The Belarus govern- ber states’ U.N. representatives failed to ment evicted a legal defense group from its follow through in any meaningful way on office and was believed to be behind the these statements. unresolved series of break-ins and raids of In early 2000, U.N. High Commissioner other groups’ offices. In Kazakhstan an un- for Human Rights Mary Robinson took the explained fire damaged the office of one of the lead on Chechnya. The Russian government country’s most prominent groups. In Geor- responded to her repeated condemnations by gia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs simply refusing her February request to visit shut down an NGO program that would have Chechnya. When she was finally permitted provided round-the-clock pro bono legal ser- to visit the region in late March, she acknowl- vices to detainees. edged evidence of summary executions, tor- Defenders faced difficulties in conflict ture, and rape committed by Russian forces, 258 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW

but she refused to heed calls for an interna- to local courts to counter concerns about bias, tional commission of inquiry, opting instead intimidation, and bribery among local judges to leave the accountability effort to the Rus- and court officials. UNMIK established a sian authorities. special U.N. police unit for the protection of The European Union-sponsored reso- Serbs and began appointing international lution adopted in April at the U.N. Commis- judges and prosecutors to local judicial sys- sion on Human Rights followed Robinson’s tems to counter evident bias and to promote approach. The resolution, the first ever the rule of law. adopted by the commission concerning the The International Criminal Tribunal for the conduct of a permanent member of the Secu- Former Yugoslavia continued its important rity Council, called upon the Russian govern- contribution to peace in the Balkans by trying ment to establish a national commission of alleged war criminals, including the first-ever inquiry to investigate alleged abuses in war crimes trial based solely on allegations of Chechnya and to permit visits to the region by rape and sexual violence. Its efforts were a number of U.N. human rights monitoring undermined, however, by the continued fail- bodies. ure of the international community to appre- Other than periodic calls for implemen- hend the indicted masterminds of ethnic cleans- tation of this resolution, no U.N. member ing in Bosnia, wartime Bosnian Serb leader state or representative showed an active in- Radovan Karadzic and Bosnian Serb general terest in ensuring Russian compliance with Ratko Mladic. Moreover, the failure of the these demands, despite the high international community to insist that de- commissioner’s efforts. As of this writing, posed Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic the Russian government had taken no mean- stand trial before the tribunal reinforced the ingful steps to investigate or prosecute cases perception that the worst offenders enjoy the relating to abuses in Chechnya, and it had most lenient treatment. utterly refused to establish a commission of inquiry or invite most U.N. human rights Organization for Security and representatives who requested to visit the Cooperation in Europe (0SCE) region. Although the conflict occasionally After the Istanbul summit of its fifty- spilled over Russia’s border with Georgia and four heads of state in November 1999, with resulted in substantial cross-border refugee grand pronouncements about the flows, the Security Council failed even to organization’s role in upholding human rights, discuss the issue. the OSCE’s contribution to human rights The U.N. continued to struggle with its protection in the region depended on its peace implementation mission in Kosovo willingness to withstand pressure and inter- (UNMIK), as international attention shifted ference from member states. The result, for to flashpoints in other parts of the world. the most part, was singularly disappointing. UNMIK made some progress in convincing The dogged efforts of the high commissioner ethnic Albanian and Serb leaders to partici- on national minorities, the representative on pate in transitional power-sharing structures, freedom of the media, and the Office of but peace efforts were marred by political and Democratic Institutions and Human Rights ethnic violence. Progress was also made in (ODIHR) to condemn abuses, provide train- establishing a local police force, but interna- ing, and convene seminars, were completely tional civilian police lacked personnel to po- overshadowed by the failure of the OSCE to lice in the interim, despite repeated requests uphold its mandate to deploy a mission to to U.N. member states. Efforts to build an Chechnya and by the organization’s role in independent judiciary were undermined by organizing and monitoring deeply flawed elec- UNMIK’s reluctance adequately to super- tions throughout the region. vise the courts, although it belatedly began to The members of the OSCE Assistance appoint international judges and prosecutors Group to Chechnya sat in a Moscow office, EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW 259 prevented by the Russian government from veloped in the course of monitoring past redeploying to Chechnya or neighboring prov- flawed votes in, for example, Kazakhstan and inces where their monitoring and reporting Uzbekistan. The OSCE also organized the could have provided protection for thou- October municipal elections in Kosovo, push- sands of civilian victims of the conflict. The ing ahead under international pressure to OSCE and its member states were unable to demonstrate progress in peace implementa- convince the Russian government to allow the tion, although political and ethnic violence group to operate in and around Chechnya, and attacks on journalists indicated at the time even though its right to do so had been clearly of writing that the elections would not likely stipulated in its 1995 mandate and reaffirmed meet OSCE standards. at the Istanbul summit by all member states, Having failed to use the opportunity of including Russia, and again by Russian For- the 1999 Istanbul summit to obtain any eign Minister Igor Ivanov during April meet- lasting human rights improvements in Tur- ings with OSCE Chair-In-Office Austrian key, the OSCE and its “human dimension” Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner. mechanisms remained underutilized in that The OSCE’s continued engagement in country, where, had there been the political Central Asia, this year emphasizing eco- will, they might have made a significant con- nomic and security cooperation, yielded no tribution to the Turkish government’s efforts progress on human rights. For the third to comply with E.U. accession criteria relat- straight year, the government of Turkmenistan ing to democratization, rule of law, and minor- would not sign a Memorandum of Under- ity rights. standing with ODIHR regarding democrati- The year saw continued OSCE efforts to zation activities in the country, which seri- address women’s human rights issues, with ously called into question the utility of con- the adoption of a Gender Action Plan in June tinued OSCE engagement there. and a special “human dimension” seminar to Perhaps because the OSCE did not have identify measures to combat trafficking. The to contend with pressure from member states apparent downgrading of the position of the regarding its work on Kosovo, it engaged in gender advisor in the Vienna secretariat did active public human rights reporting there, not, however, bode well for efforts to imple- which included thoughtful criticism of inter- ment these plans. national institutions. This served as a posi- tive model for what could be accomplished Council of Europe when political will is mustered. The Council of Europe’s profile ex- In 2000, the OSCE monitored elections panded significantly in 2000, as the organiza- in Croatia, Tajikistan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, tion engaged in new and unprecedented field Georgia, Albania, Macedonia, the Yugoslav activities, technical assistance missions, and Republic of Montenegro, Belarus, and election monitoring activities with mixed re- Azerbaijan. Although OSCE election reports sults for human rights conditions. were generally accurate in identifying flaws, Among international organizations, the the decisions to send full assessment mis- Council of Europe enjoyed the most exten- sions to Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan, and sive dialogue with the Russian government even the limited assessment mission it sent to regarding its conduct in Chechnya. The Belarus, risked according legitimacy to elec- council’s commissioner for human rights, the toral processes that were deeply, structurally council-based European Committee for the flawed. OSCE officials argued that their pres- Prevention of Torture, and several delega- ence during these elections was necessary to tions from the its Parliamentary Assembly document electoral abuses and develop rec- visited Moscow and the North Caucasus, ommendations for improved processes. Un- condemned violations committed by both fortunately, 2000 saw little progress made in sides to the conflict, and urged steps to curb implementing OSCE recommendations de- abuses and bring about an end to the conflict. 260 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW

The secretary general invoked for the first least in Chechnya, become a race to the time article 52 of the European Convention on bottom. Human Rights to request information from Similar concerns arose over Council of the Russian government regarding implemen- Europe election assistance in Azerbaijan. tation of the convention in Chechnya and in Although the OSCE was already engaged in a April the Parliamentary Assembly suspended dialogue with the Azerbaijani authorities re- the voting rights of the Russian parliamentary garding conditions for their November elec- delegation. tions, the Council of Europe accepted an In response, the Russian government April request from the Azerbaijani govern- accepted deployment in Chechnya of a three- ment that it advise them too. Necessarily person Council of Europe team of experts to complicated by political considerations relat- assist the office of Russian President Putin’s ing to Azerbaijan’s pending Council member- Special Representative for Human Rights in ship application, the team’s assessment of Chechnya, Vladimir Kalamanov. This team, pre-election conditions sometimes conflicted the only international personnel with a hu- with that of the OSCE. man rights mandate permitted to operate in A more productive division of labor Chechnya, surely made a positive contribu- occurred in Kosovo, where the OSCE had the tion to the work of Kalamanov’s office. At task of organizing the October municipal the same time, its deployment raised serious elections and the Council of Europe ran the concerns that the Russian government was independent international monitoring mis- “forum shopping,” essentially looking for the sion. weakest institution that it could engage in Concerns persisted that the Council of order to avoid a stronger international reac- Europe was admitting states before they were tion. ready to live up to its human rights standards. Indeed, the Council of Europe deploy- In June, the Parliamentary Assembly voted ment was used by representatives of the U.S., to recommend admission for Armenia and the E.U., and other governments and institu- Azerbaijan, and in a September report, the tions as an argument against creating an inter- parliamentary rapporteur for Bosnia and national commission of inquiry, even though Hercegovina’s application seemed to set aside Kalamanov and the Council of Europe staff all but one of the eight conditions previously working with him had no authority to inves- set for that country’s admission. The pros- tigate or prosecute alleged atrocities. Council pect of premature admission of these coun- member states also used the deployment as an tries heightened concern over the European excuse to forego more robust action, such as Court of Human Rights’ ever-expanding a lawsuit against the Russian Federation be- caseload. The court also faced an increased fore the European Court of Human Rights, or unwillingness among states to abide by its a Committee of Ministers’ action to monitor judgments; offending states included long- Russia’s conduct in Chechnya or to expel term members. Russia from the council. The deployment The year saw further progress in the also weakened the case for an OSCE presence emerging practice of member states electing to and gave the Russian authorities an argument publish reports of the Committee for the against compliance with the U.N. Commis- Prevention of Torture, although a number of sion on Human Rights resolution. Council of states continued to publish the reports selec- Europe officials argued that it was better for tively. As of August 15, 2000, the following them to be in Chechnya than not. This claim states continued to refuse to publish at least ignored the impact of their presence on the one committee report: Albania, Austria, overall international response to the Chechnya Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, crisis and the danger that the much-touted Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, “complementarity” among international in- Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San stitutions in the field of human rights had, at Marino, Macedonia, Ukraine, and the United EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW 261

Kingdom. In the case of Turkey, no fewer over Chechnya barely figured in these dia- than seven reports were outstanding. logues. In the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, North Atlantic Treaty Organization the E.U. broke ranks with the U.S. to offer The North Atlantic Treaty Organiza- economic assistance to Serbia’s opposition- tion continued its leadership role in the peace- controlled towns, and when the opposition keeping operations in the Balkans. In Kosovo, took power in early October, the E.U. quickly shortages of U.N. civilian police left the lifted most country-wide sanctions. While NATO-led KFOR with substantial policing the E.U. kept in place certain restrictions responsibilities. KFOR troops conducted imposed on those indicted for war crimes and between 500 and 750 patrols every day, their allies, it failed to make a clear link guarded more than 550 sites, and manned between enhanced relations with the new more than 200 vehicle checkpoints. KFOR’s authorities and their commitment to the policing responsibilities challenged NATO international rule of law, including coopera- troops trained for military operations, who tion with the ICTY. despite some efforts to seize illegal weapons The year saw continued E.U. dialogue remained reluctant to detain or sanction mem- on human rights with the newly independent bers of the Kosovo Protection Corps or of the states in the context of Cooperation Council officially disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army meetings held pursuant to the E.U.’s Partner- implicated in political violence and attacks on ship and Cooperation Agreements (PCAs). Serbs, Roma, and other ethnic minorities. In a welcome development, official state- Although NATO claimed that half of all ments emerging from these meetings made KFOR personnel were engaged in the protec- explicit reference to the need for implementa- tion of Serbs and other minorities, their re- tion of OSCE and Council of Europe human sponse to violence against minorities, par- rights standards and recommendations. ticularly Roma, remained inadequate. An Turkey’s first year as an official candi- October OSCE report on Kosovo’s justice date for membership in the E.U. produced system also criticized KFOR and UNMIK little progress on its compliance with the for arbitrary and prolonged detentions of human rights criteria for membership. Indeed suspects without charge. the first few months of the year saw back- Most prominent among NATO arrests tracking on positive steps taken in the run-up of indicted war criminals in Bosnia was the to the E.U.’s December decision to accord April detention of Momcilo Krajisnik, the Turkey candidate status. As this report went wartime president of the Bosnian Serb As- to press, observers were awaiting publication sembly and a postwar member of the Bosnian of the E.U.’s Accession Partnership docu- presidency. Krajisnik’s arrest belied prior ment, outlining the steps Turkey had to take assertions by military and political leaders to prepare itself for E.U. membership. Rights that arrests of high-ranking figures would groups feared that the Accession Partnership result in protest and retaliatory attacks. would lack depth and specificity regarding needed reforms particularly in such areas as European Union minority rights, which were controversial in The European Union introduced the Turkey, or the restrictions on the headscarf, resolution on Chechnya at the U.N. Commis- which were controversial in Europe. They sion on Human Rights. Once the resolution urged strict application of the Copenhagen went to a vote and passed, the E.U. was criteria for Turkey’s E.U. admission, in a conspicuously absent from efforts to imple- manner consistent with the approach for ment it. To the contrary, the late spring and other applicant states. summer saw European heads of government In October 1999, the European Com- and state highly eager to meet with the new mission proposed that updated agreements Russian President Vladimir Putin; criticism for candidate countries seeking to join the 262 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW

European Union, including Hungary and the between the extent of their support for new Czech Republic, make the improvement of Yugoslav leader Vojislav Kostunica and his the situation of Roma a short and medium cooperation with the tribunal. term priority. Close political and military ties between the U.S. and Turkey continued to dominate United States human rights concerns in that country. When U.S. officials repeatedly expressed con- the Turkish military announced in mid-year cern over alleged atrocities in Chechnya and that it had chosen a U.S. manufacturer to claimed that other aspects of U.S.-Russian supply U.S. $4 billion in attack helicopters, relations would not compromise their re- the U.S. government appeared to waver in its sponse to these abuses. The U.S. promise to condition the sale on human rights government’s lack of action on Chechnya improvements to which President Clinton belied this assertion. and then-President Mesut Yilmaz agreed in At the U.N. Commission on Human late 1997. A decision on the export license for Rights, when negotiations over a consensus the helicopters was not expected before early chairman’s statement acceptable to the Rus- 2001. sian government broke down, the U.S. be- came a late cosponsor of the resolution on Russian Federation Chechnya. While the conduct of Russian govern- President Clinton’s June, July, and Sep- ment forces in Chechnya was among top tember meetings with Russian President human rights concerns in the region, the Vladimir Putin yielded no progress on ac- Russian government also stood to have a countability for abuses in Chechnya nor on significant impact on human rights elsewhere. compliance with the demands of the U.N. In September Russia became the 112th state Commission on Human Rights and the OSCE to sign the Statute of the International Crimi- Assistance Group. nal Court, further isolating the U.S. and China A travel ban imposed by the U.S. em- as the sole remaining opponents to the court bassy in Moscow kept U.S. government among Security Council permanent mem- officials from traveling to the North Caucasus bers. The extent of Russian commitment to to monitor and document the atrocities first- the principles of international humanitarian hand. This represented a stark contrast to law were, however, seriously called into ques- U.S. and E.U. practice in Kosovo, where tion by its continued failure to rein in its beginning in mid-1998, military attaches in troops in Chechnya and to prosecute soldiers Belgrade conducted regular, coordinated mis- responsible for abuses. The Russian sions to Kosovo to monitor the conduct of government’s disregard for international rule Serb security forces. U.S. government per- of law was also illustrated in May when it sonnel apparently made no concerted effort played host in Moscow to Yugoslav Minister to monitor the status of Russian investiga- of Defense Dragolub Ojdanic, an indicted war tions of the abuses, although regular commu- criminal, in what it later claimed was the result nication with responsible prosecutors would of an administrative error (the government certainly have sent an important signal re- had an obligation under Security Council garding U.S. expectations for the accountabil- resolutions to arrest Ojdanic). ity process. In the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, International Financial Institutions the U.S., like the E.U., welcomed the International financial institutions made opposition’s rise to power by lifting most some progress toward addressing human rights sanctions. U.S. officials continued to prom- issues related to prospects for economic ise that former Yugoslav president Slobodan development in the region. A welcome devel- Milosevic would eventually be tried by the opment came in the form of decisions by the ICTY, but they refused to make any clear link World Bank and the European Bank for EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW 263

Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) abuses they experienced in a series of press to suspend financing in Turkmenistan due to releases. Three reports published in Febru- the autocratic regime’s corruption and utter ary, April, and June documented massacres resistance to reform. Unfortunately, these of civilians by Russian forces in sweep opera- decisions did not dissuade the Asian Devel- tions: Civilian Killings in Staropromyslovski opment bank from allowing Turkmenistan to District of Grozny, “No Happiness Remains”: become a member in August. Civilian Killings, Pillage, and Rape in Alkhan- The World Bank’s continued disburse- Yurt, Chechnya, and February 5: A Day of ment of structural adjustment loan payments Slaughter in Novye Aldi. In October, a fourth to the Russian government without reference report, “Welcome to Hell”: Arbitrary Deten- to abuses committed in Chechnya was a tion, Torture, and Extortion in Chechnya, disappointment, standing in stark contrast to documented torture in Russian detention cen- the bank’s approach on abuses in West Timor. ters in the region. Researchers in the region While refusing to make the link to Chechnya, worked with the international community both the World Bank and the EBRD demon- and Russian agencies to ensure better protec- strated a growing appreciation of the need for tion to displaced persons as Russian forces institutional reform and improved governance attempted to pressure them to return prema- in Russia. turely to their homes. Representatives of the international fi- Throughout the year we urged interna- nancial institutions repeatedly acknowledged tional institutions and governments to send the impact of corrupt and abusive law en- representatives to the region to bear witness forcement agencies on efforts to combat cor- to the abuse, and to press the Russian govern- ruption and ensure the rule of law in the ment to stop abuses and to launch a credible region, but they remained largely resistant to accountability process. We engaged the World the idea of addressing needed criminal law Bank, in letters and meetings, to withhold reform through their own conditionality and installments of structural adjustment loans technical assistance. and to link disbursements to the Russian government with compliance with its interna- The Work of Human Rights Watch tional humanitarian law obligations. Based on the model of the organization’s Since the Russian authorities did not work last year on Kosovo, Human Rights conduct credible inquiries or institute crimi- Watch launched an emergency response to nal proceedings in response to abuses in the massive abuses in Chechnya, which to- Chechnya, we urged the international com- gether with Central Asia and postwar Kosovo, munity to do so. To this end we formed a remained top priorities throughout the year. coalition of Russian and international human When the war in Chechnya entered its rights organizations to urge Council of Eu- deadly stage in late autumn 1999, Human rope member states to file an interstate com- Rights Watch deployed a rotating team of plaint against Russia at the European Court researchers to Ingushetia, where the majority of Human Rights. We conducted advocacy at of people displaced by the conflict had fled. three sessions of the Council of Europe’s We used this six-month research presence to Parliamentary Assembly to ensure that it document humanitarian law violations by would appropriately censure Russia, and both Russian and Chechen rebel forces, to urged the assembly to adopt resolutions call- press the international media to cover what ing for a rigorous domestic accountability had been an underreported conflict, and to use process and calling on member states to file an research results in timely advocacy with the interstate complaint. In a series of exchanges Russian government and the international with the office of the secretary general and the community. departments for political affairs and human Researchers interviewed more than 750 rights, we also cautioned the council about the displaced people and immediately exposed potential pitfalls of sending its staff to work 264 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW

in the office of President Vladimir Putin’s violence by pressuring women to remain in special representative on human rights in abusive marriages. Chechnya. The organization’s Dushanbe office gath- Human Rights Watch also sought to ered information on civil and political rights have an international commission of inquiry violations relevant to the November 1999 established by the U.N. Commission on Hu- presidential elections and the February 2000 man Rights. The organization urged the high parliamentary vote. In November 1999, a commissioner for human rights to call for such report was presented, Freedom of Expres- a commission, and engaged member states to sion Still Threatened, which documented the adopt a resolution to this effect at its fifty- dramatic increase in harassment of and re- sixth session. After the commission adopted strictions on the media, to the Tajik govern- a resolution calling for a national commission ment in a series of high-level meetings. The of inquiry and the deployment of thematic organization launched an advocacy initiative mechanisms, Human Rights Watch published in advance of both elections, publishing a memorandum outlining Russia’s failure to backgrounders detailing flagrant violations comply with the resolution and urged mem- and addressing letters to the government ber states, particularly the U.S. and E.U., to urging redress. The Dushanbe office also call Russia to account. It was with this aim regularly briefed members of the international that we engaged U.S. president Bill Clinton in community on human rights developments in advance of his summit meeting with President the country. Putin, and the E.U. in advance of its summit The Europe and Central Asia Division with the Russian government. In other advo- strove to make the human rights crisis in cacy, the organization testified twice before Central Asia a priority issue among interna- the U.S. Congress to emphasize that many of tional actors, particularly the United Nations the abuses in Chechnya were effectively war and the OSCE. This was also raised with U.N. crimes and twice before the Council of High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. The goals Robinson in February 2000 and in meetings with respect to Chechnya at the OSCE fo- with staff members for the U.N. special cused on the redeployment of the Assistance rapporteur on torture, the Working Group on Group to Chechnya. Recommendations on Arbitrary Arrests and Disappearances, and Chechnya were reinforced in opinion articles the Committee against Torture, urging them in the U.S. and European media. to request visits to Uzbekistan. Through field offices in Tashkent and Human Rights Watch focused special Dushanbe, the organization continued to docu- attention on Central Asia at the U.N. Com- ment the worsening human rights crisis in mission on Human Rights in March 2000, Central Asia, particularly in Uzbekistan. Re- urging the appointment of a special rappor- searchers undertook fact-finding missions in teur on Uzbekistan. This forum was also used seven regions of the country to document and to release Leaving No Witnesses: Uzbekistan’s publicize the arbitrary arrests and torture of Campaign Against Rights Defenders, in order hundreds of people accused of “religious to strengthen the call for a commission reso- extremism” and to monitor dozens of trials. lution on defenders. When Uzbek officials The Human Rights Watch Tashkent office used U.N. Human Rights Committee com- regularly urged the international community plaint forms as evidence against a defendant to monitor trials, briefed the diplomatic com- in a religious extremism case, this was re- munity about human rights developments, ported to relevant U.N. agencies in detailed and brought victims of abuse together with letters. visiting high-level officials from the U.S. and U.N.-targeted advocacy on Tajikistan E.U. A mission to three regions of the country aimed to ensure a strong human rights compo- documented how government agencies at all nent to the U.N.’s presence following the levels compounded the problem of domestic May 15 withdrawal of the U.N. Mission of EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW 265

Observers to Tajikistan (UNMOT). A memo- multiregion research project on torture, at a randum, based on ongoing research, was is- press conference in Moscow. The organiza- sued on April 21, concerning the government’s tion held high-level advocacy meetings with poor human rights practices in the post-civil Russian government officials and urged the war period, and the implications that international community to support the cre- UNMOT’s limited human rights mandate ation of a torture rehabilitation center. had for a long-term peace in Tajikistan. The These same issues were of top concern organization formulated recommendations in the Caucasus. Through the Human Rights for the follow-on mission, urging a strong Watch field office in Tbilisi, Georgia, research human rights component to its work. Letters was conducted on torture and on the setback outlining concerns were sent to members of in legal reforms that could have helped pre- the Security Council, and we conducted meet- vent torture and other due process violations. ings with senior U.N. representatives from In September, the organization released Back- the Department of Political Affairs, the Of- tracking on Reform: Amendments Under- fice of the Secretary- General, and with rep- mine Access to Justice, at a press conference resentatives from the missions of major mem- in Tbilisi. The report documented the repeal ber states. of reforms in Georgia’s criminal procedure Human Rights Watch sought to keep code that would have granted criminal sus- human rights at the top of the agenda of U.S.- pects and defendants the right to complain Uzbekistan relations, and urged the U.S. about due process violations directly to a government to use explicit conditionality court, prior to trial. Since the repeal of these under the International Religious Freedom reforms ran counter to Georgia’s commit- Act and the Cooperative Threat Reduction ments upon admission to the Council of program. This was done in meetings with the Europe, this featured prominently in our secretary of state and other top officials and meetings with the Council of Europe’s Moni- in many letters and memoranda. In congres- toring Committee during its May visit to sional testimony we rebutted the Clinton Tbilisi, and in advocacy with the Parliamen- Administration’s argument that the crack- tary Assembly. down in Uzbekistan qualified as political, not Human Rights Watch advocated for the religious persecution. expansion of the World Bank’s work in the With respect to Turkmenistan, Human area of legal and judicial reforms specifically Rights Watch strove to have international to address reform of certain aspects of crimi- lending related to that countries linked strictly nal law and procedure. In meetings in Novem- to human rights improvements. It urged the ber 1999 and in February and July 2000 we Department of State to declare Turkmenistan argued that Georgia’s setback in legal reform ineligible on human rights grounds for Export- served to undermine public trust in the judi- Import Bank credits and urged the European ciary and hence bank programs that promote Bank for Reconstruction and Development it. The organization urged the bank to adopt to end all lending to the country. In January, criminal procedure reform throughout the Human Rights Watch also published a press region as a policy trigger for future structural release condemning the arrest of Nurberdi adjustment lending in its country assistance Nurmamedov, perhaps the last remaining strategy; to expand its capacity to conduct dissident in the country who publicly criti- analysis of judicial systems and criminal cized the decision to extend indefinitely Presi- procedure, to enable it to identify provisions dent Saparmurad Niazov’s term in office. in legislation that are not in compliance with Torture and due process violations re- international human rights law and standards; mained a chief concern in the former Soviet and to assist in the formulation of lending Union. In November 1999, Human Right targets in these areas. released Confessions at Any Cost: Police In the run-up to Azerbaijan’s November Torture in Russia, the result of a two-year, 5 parliamentary elections, Human Rights 266 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW

Watch launched a month-long fact-finding fair-trial concerns regarding war crimes trials mission to research civil and political rights of Serbs before Albanian-dominated local abuses affecting the election. Researchers courts in Kosovo. interviewed journalists for media outlets that Before the ouster of Slobodan Milosevic, were closed or fined arbitrarily, parliamen- Human Rights Watch aimed to call interna- tary candidates whose registration was arbi- tional attention to victims of his government’s trarily denied, and opposition activists ha- intensified harassment and to ensure maxi- rassed by local governments. mum international assistance to civil society. Human Rights Watch priorities in the The significance of elections mandated for wake of the war in Kosovo were twofold. The 2000 was anticipated, and throughout the organization responded to the compelling year the organization detailed the repression need for an independent record of the humani- of the government’s critics. A May report tarian law violations during the war. It also focused on measures the government took examined postwar human rights issues espe- against civil society institutions which it cially minority rights, due process, and free- perceived as a threat, including opposition dom of movement that would have a lasting parties, the independent media, student orga- impact on efforts to build a sustainable peace nizations, independent trade unions, nongov- in the province. ernmental organizations (NGOs), and civic Throughout the year we assembled in- activists in Serbia. Just prior to the elections, formation on humanitarian law violations in the organization published a backgrounder the 1999 conflict with NATO. In March, the detailing how the authorities set about rigging organization published a report documenting the elections. rape as a weapon of “ethnic cleansing” in When Milosevic left office, Human Kosovo. The report included ninety-six cases Rights Watch deployed a researcher to of rape of Albanian women by Serbian and Belgrade to identify a new human rights Yugoslav forces immediately before and dur- agenda for Yugoslavia: release of Kosovo ing the 1999 NATO bombing campaign. An Albanian political prisoners, cooperation with April Human Rights Watch report found that the ICTY as part of the general restoration of NATO forces had violated international hu- the rule of law, restoring the independence of manitarian law in its bombing campaign, which the judiciary, and justice for past abuses by resulted in the deaths of more than 500 security forces. In a series of letters and press civilians. releases, Human Rights Watch called for the The organization’s strategy on post- international community to adopt a policy on war Kosovo was to remind the international cooperation vis a vis Serbia consistent with community of the lesson learned from Bosnia: that practiced throughout the Balkans. that rushed elections in postwar situations, In Croatia, the organization focused on especially in the wake of massive violence and minority rights and other basic civic freedoms inter-ethnic hatred, undermined longer-term in the transition from Tudjman period. A prospects for the rule of law. This message report published in December 1999, in antici- was presented in a March meeting with the pation of elections in early 2000, outlined OSCE chair-in-office, in follow-up corre- violations of the rights to freedom of expres- spondence, and in a June memorandum to sion and assembly. After the election of diplomats and international organizations, President Stjepan Mesi and formation of a and in an October backgrounder for the media new government under Prime Minister Ivica and other observers of the elections. In June, Racan, Human Rights Watch wrote to both we investigated access to protection and leaders, recommending legislative and admin- justice for minorities in Kosovo, focusing on istrative measures to ensure equal treatment the work of UNMIK police and KFOR. for all Croatian citizens, including minorities, December 1999 and January 2000 meetings to promote the return of Serb refugees and the with the E.U. and the U.S. government raised reform the country’s state broadcaster. In EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW 267

Croatia, we focused on minority rights and reform measures would subject detainees to other basic civic freedoms in the transition an impermissible isolation regime. A Novem- from Tudjman period. A report published in ber Human Rights Watch memorandum wel- December 1999, in anticipation of elections in comed some improvements in the planned early 2000, outlined violations of the rights to reforms and urged additional steps be taken to freedom of expression and assembly. ensure that it would comport with interna- Research and advocacy on Bosnia fo- tional prison standards. Research also con- cused on two aspects of refugee return: keep- tinued on the headscarf ban and followed ing the donor community engaged, identify- closely developments relating to the pending ing minority returns as an essential element sale of U.S. $4 billion worth of U.S.-manufac- for a lasting peace and the rule of law, and tured attack helicopters to Turkey. ensuring that progress on returns remained a In 2000 the organization took on migrant condition for Council of Europe accession. In worker’ rights as its strategic focus in West- May Human Rights Watch published Unfin- ern Europe.The multicountry project would ished Business: Return of Displaced Persons document and expose the serious abuses and Other Human Rights Issues in Bijeljina, committed against migrant workers in West- which documented how authorities in that ern Europe, who were among the most vulner- city obstructed the implementation of the able groups in that region, and the failure of Dayton Peace Agreement by providing nei- states to protect their basic rights. Of par- ther protection nor equal rights to the Bosniak ticular concern were those migrant workers community there, and by actively deterring who worked in forced labor conditions, either the return of Bosniaks who were driven from in conditions of near-captivity for little or no the city during the war. We continued with wages or in debt bondage, where wages were research in 2000 to investigate impediments immediately absorbed into repaying a “debt” to minority returns, including decrease in owed to the employer. A fact-finding mission donor assistance, persistent failure by local in October investigated these issues with authorities to enforce housing regulations, respect to Greece. security concerns, and lack of long-term pros- Migrants and refugees were primary pects for employment and education. targets of the upsurge in xenophobia and In Turkey research and advocacy fo- racist violence in Western Europe in 2000. cused on the opportunity for reform that Focusing specifically on the relationship be- emerged when Turkey became a candidate for tween xenophobia and many European gov- membership in the European Union in De- ernments’ increasingly restrictive immigra- cember 1999. A September 2000 report tion policies and practices, we promoted outlined specific short-term steps the Turk- migrants’ rights and refugee protection in fora ish government should take to begin to dem- related to the U.N. World Conference Against onstrate its willingness to meet the E.U.’s Racism. Together with the European Council membership criteria. Recommended steps on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), the organiza- addressed torture, restrictions on freedom of tion released a memorandum at the Strasbourg expression and religious freedom, violations regional preparatory conference critiquing of minority rights, continued instability in the the Draft General Conclusions of the Euro- southeastern part of the country, and the pean Conference Against Racism. The memo- death penalty. Human Rights Watch pressed randum highlighted measures taken by West- this agenda throughout the year with govern- ern European governments that undermined mental interlocutors in both Brussels and protections for asylum seekers and migrants, Ankara. giving the media, public, and state agencies an In May, Human Rights Watch staff apparent rational for discriminating against traveled to Ankara to meet with Ministry of them. We recommended full compliance with Justice officials and released a report outlin- the 1951 refugee convention and the promo- ing our concern that their proposed prison tion and protection of fundamental human 268 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA OVERVIEW/ ALBANIA

and labor rights for all migrants as a way to internal reforms. Problems remained with stem the growing tide of anti-foreigner senti- regard to corruption, excessive force used by ment and violence in Europe. the police, trafficking of women, and controls Throughout the year, Human Rights on the media. The two main political rivals in Watch highlighted the need for greater coor- Albania—Sali Berisha, president of the op- dination on human rights protection among position Democratic Party (DP), and Fatos international institutions active in the region. Nano, president of the ruling Socialist Party The organization emphasized the need for (SP)—revived the bitter political feuding that institutional and policy linkages between had polarized Albanian society over the past political institutions engaged in monitoring decade and forestalled the emergence of and promoting human rights and an interna- younger, less divisive political leaders in tional donor community that was increas- Albania. ingly cognizant of the role of governance and The bitter rivalry became notably evi- rule of law in fostering effective development. dent in the preparations for the October local A welcome development in this regard was elections. Berisha had waged a relentless the emerging E.U. practice of citing Council of campaign of accusations against the SP since Europe and OSCE recommendations and losing power in 1997 and accused the Central commitments in statements regarding its Electoral Commission (CEC) of bias. He Cooperation Council meetings with coun- called for the reinstatement of a bipartisan tries in the region. commission—rather than the intended non- In September, the organization’s Eu- political body—and boycotted the CEC. In rope and Central Asia Division participated August, Berisha accused Organization for in NGO meetings with World Bank and IMF Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) officials organized in conjunction with those election observers of being partial toward the institutions’ annual meetings in Prague. government and the SP and said he would Human Rights Watch joined other nongov- refuse to cooperate with them during the ernmental organizations in pressing the World election. Bank in particular to operationalize its stated In June the Council of Europe expressed commitment to human rights. In a joint concern over the lack of progress in investi- statement with the Federation Internationale gating the 1998 assassination of senior DP des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme, the orga- member Azem Hajdari. The authorities blamed nization recommended that the bank incorpo- key DP witnesses, who refused to cooperate rate reference to human rights law in its with what they saw as a biased investigation. policies, consider appropriate human rights- Another investigation, conducted by related conditionality on its lending, expand PricewaterhouseCoopers into the pyramid the bank’s internal staff capacity to assess schemes that collapsed in early 1997 during human rights conditions relevant to develop- Berisha’s leadership, concluded in January ment, and coordinate closely with and sup- 2000 that only U.S. $50 million of the public’s port the work of international human rights lost money was recoverable. The lack of a bodies. conviction in the Hajdari case and inability of the accounting firm to locate and repatriate the bulk of the money lost in the pyramid schemes exacerbated the deep divisions in ALBANIA Albanian politics. Despite the highly partisan political Human Rights Developments atmosphere, the Albanian government made With the rapid repatriation of over some sincere efforts to confront official cor- 450,000 Kosovar refugees from northern ruption and to establish public order in the Albania to Kosovo by 2000, Albania was country. After passing the Law on the State once again able to turn inward and focus on Police in December 1999, the Ministry of ALBANIA 269

Public Order began restructuring the police amounts of money to be smuggled across the force, improving recruitment procedures, and Adriatic Sea on speed boats. Low police training new police chiefs. The police also morale and a faltering judicial system limited cracked down on armed gangs, and their Albania’s ability to combat organized crime. number was reported to be decreasing. Following the adoption of the Law on Senior police officers supported by high- the People’s Advocate in February 1999, the level politicians were still suspected of in- Albanian parliament named the country’s volvement in the escalation of drug trafficking first ombudsman, Emir Objani, in February in Albania, which was said to have increased 2000. Objani’s office struggled throughout corruption in the country. The police also at 2000 to acquire premises and become opera- times utilized excessive force against sus- tional. pects during arrests and in the initial period of The October 1 municipal elections were detention. In September both government seen as a major test of Albania’s fragile and parliamentary officials requested that the democracy. There were some violent inci- Western European Union extend its assis- dents prior to the electoral campaign, as when tance program (of training, counseling, and four DP activists from the Lezhe region were logistical support) to the Albanian police for pulled over and beaten by masked special an additional year. police forces on a road north of Tirana in Violations of women’s human rights March. But the fact that the DP’s Sali Berisha continued unabated in Albania, as trafficking was able to hold a peaceful political rally in and domestic violence plagued women and May in the southern city of Vlora—tradition- girls throughout the country. Many women, ally a SP stronghold—was a sign of some lured with deceptive offers of lucrative work growing stability. Only a few violent inci- abroad, migrated to Western Europe only to dents were reported, a tribute to the find themselves sold as virtual slaves for government’s efforts, as well as to the re- approximately U.S. $1,000 each. Traffickers straint of the political parties themselves. also abducted women and girls, stripping Despite some irregularities, including them of their passports and forcing them to errors and omissions in the new voter register, work in brothels in Italy and other E.U. the municipal electoral commissions gener- countries. Women trapped in forced prosti- ally administered the voting procedures cor- tution and other types of forced labor feared rectly. Police conduct was deemed appropri- turning to law enforcement for assistance, ate by international monitors, who saw “sig- terrified that their “employers” would carry nificant progress” in the elections toward out threats of harm against them and their meeting international standards. The SP made families. Domestic violence also devastated significant gains in the first round, and an women’s lives in Albania; nongovernmental October 15 runoff led to an overwhelming SP organizations compensated for a lack of state victory. The ruling SP won in 262 out of 398 response to the abuse by opening a shelter for towns and municipalities in two rounds of the battered women in Tirana with Italian fund- local elections. International monitors con- ing. Girls suffered from a lack of educational sidered the second round “less transparent opportunities, as fearful parents refused to and inclusive” due to the failure to address allow thousands of school-aged females to inaccuracies in the voter lists, invalid ballots, attend school amid concerns about the girls’ and election complaints. In the southern safety and “honor.” coastal town of Himara, where a Greek minor- Smuggling of human beings expanded as ity resides, serious irregularities occurred, a highly profitable business. Foreign nation- including intimidation of election commis- als (increasingly Turkish Kurds) and asylum sion members, the destruction of one ballot seekers transiting en route to the E.U., Alba- box in a violent incident, and fraud in three nian men seeking work in the E.U., and other voting centers. Nationalist rhetoric Albanian women and girls paid exorbitant during the campaign, both at the local and 270 ALBANIA

national level, had heightened tension in the lished a report in April on police misconduct town over a possible victory by the local in the city of Elbasan, the director of the ethnic Greek Human Rights Union Party. organization as well as the authors of the Albania’s state television was criticized report received anonymous phone calls threat- by the OSCE in the first week of the campaign ening retribution for its publication. The period in early September for strongly favor- AHRG continued receiving complaints from ing the SP in its coverage, particularly when citizens regarding abuses, and the Albanian it violated the electoral code by transmitting Helsinki Committee (AHC) continued its a full interview with SP chairman Fatos Nano. long-term project of monitoring pretrial de- The OSCE simultaneously criticized the tention centers administered by the police DP-controlled ATN-1 station in Tirana for and prisons administered by the General covering DP electoral activities for twenty- Directorate of Prisons through visits to places four hours. Throughout this period the smaller of detention in numerous municipalities parties received scant attention from the throughout Albania. The AHC initiated a media. During the October 15 runoff vote project in May establishing a telephone hotline candidates received limited coverage as the to be operational twelve hours a week where media focused on the threat of a DP boycott citizens—including those imprisoned or de- and developments in Himara. TVSH, the tained—could call in to report human rights public television broadcaster, was reported violations and receive pro bono legal assis- to have provided the SP with a disproportion- tance. After the Albanian parliament enacted ate amount of coverage, though the tone of the the Law on the People’s Advocate in Febru- information provided was, overall, consid- ary, the AHC entered into a contract with the ered to be balanced. new ombudsman’s office establishing a joint Private media owners were often seen as project to support the ombudsman’s activi- being affiliated with or supporters of the SP ties. or the DP, and many journalist were often induced or bribed to investigate the “other” The Role of the International party. Journalists also continued to face Community security risks while conducting their work. For example, in March police forces in the Organization for Security and town of Korca physically abused a journalist Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from local radio ABC. In April, two journal- The OSCE focused much of its efforts ists from TV KLAN, filming near the Foreign on preparations for the October 1 local elec- Ministry in Tirana, were allegedly attacked tions throughout Albania. Ambassador Geert by five members of the Republican Guard. In Ahrens, the head of the OSCE Mission to May, two journalists from TV ATN 1 were Albania, chaired an election working group illegally detained by police officers and beaten which met with Albanian officials and politi- while in detention. Numerous private radio cal party members almost daily—starting in and television stations had also been broad- March—to address specific concerns regard- casting throughout the country since 1997 ing the electoral code and voter registration without any legal status, and Albania’s Na- procedures. The OSCE’s Warsaw-based tional Radio and Television Commission Office of Democratic Initiatives and Human planned to issue licenses for them in October, Rights, which usually is not involved in after the municipal election. municipal elections, sent eighteen long-term observers and 239 short-term observers to Defending Human Rights monitor the vote. The two major nongovernmental human rights organizations functioned, largely, with- Council of Europe out interference. The Albanian Human Rights Albania made substantial progress in Group (AHRG) reported that when it pub- meeting its legal reform obligations to the ALBANIA/ARMENIA 271

Council of Europe. In September 1999 the United States government ratified the Council of Europe The U.S. government continued to main- Framework Convention on the Protection of tain close ties with Albania in 2000, allocating National Minorities, a step that could pro- an estimated U.S. $32 million in aid to vide Albania’s ethnic Greek minority (who support the country’s reform efforts and constitute 3 percent of the population) with strongly supporting the government’s par- greater linguistic freedom, autonomy in edu- ticipation in the Balkan Stability Pact. The cation, recourse against discrimination, and U.S. also strengthened economic relations increased access to the media. Following with Albania when the Senate voted in No- threats of expulsion from the Council of vember 1999 to grant Albania Normal Trade Europe if Albania did not end capital punish- Relations status with the U.S. ment, the Constitutional Court ruled in De- cember 1999 that the death penalty was International Financial Institutions incompatible with the Albanian constitution. Citing the Albanian government’s stead- Confirming the decision in April 2000, Prime fast pursuit of sound macroeconomic policies Minister Ilir Meta signed Protocol No. 6 to and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grow- the European Convention on Human Rights, ing at around 7 percent, the International and the document was ratified by the Alba- Monetary Fund (IMF) gave Albania a posi- nian government in September 2000. The tive economic assessment in June 2000 and Council of Europe appointed a special repre- continued providing financial assistance for sentative in Albania in May 2000 to increase poverty reduction and the facilitation of eco- contacts with the Albanian government and nomic growth. The World Bank also contin- civil society. ued to provide Albania with loans to support water supply rehabilitation, a microcredit North Atlantic Treaty Organization project, as well as reform in the fields of Following the refugee crisis in 1999, education, the judiciary, public administra- 1,300 NATO troops remained in Albania in tion, and the banking and insurance indus- 2000 to provide support to NATO’s neigh- tries. Albania also joined the World Trade boring Kosovo Force and to show NATO’s Organization in September 2000. commitment to supporting stability in Alba- nia, a member of the alliance’s Partnership for Peace program. ARMENIA

European Union Human Rights Developments The E.U. provided 35 million euro (U.S. The investigation of the 1999 murder of $31.5 million) in financial assistance to sup- the prime minister, Vasken Sarkisyan, and port Albanian reform efforts in 2000, but seven others in the Armenian parliament remained skeptical about initiating the inte- dominated the political scene in 2000, with gration of the country into E.U. institutions fierce accusations of bias. Infighting among due to insufficient “institutional and political government officials over the investigation reform.” Relations with most E.U. member sapped efforts to address the country’s stag- states continued to improve in light of nating economy and poor human rights record. Albania’s pro-Western stance during the The military procuracy led the investi- Kosovo crisis. Based on a series of agree- gation of the October 27, 1999, shootings in ments, Italy and Albania increased coopera- the parliament. The arrest of a member of tion in fighting organized crime and President Robert Kochariyan’s staff, Aleksan cross-Adriatic smuggling and trafficking in Harutunyan, prompted accusations that the humans. military procuracy investigators, allied with associates of the former prime minister, were 272 ARMENIA

attempting to use the investigation to impli- fostered a climate of self-censorship among cate and oust the president. Charges against journalists. On June 6, journalist Vaghan Harutunyan were later dropped. Gukasiyan said that he was summoned to the President Kochariyan struggled to main- Ministry of Interior and severely beaten by tain his grip on power, coopting some senior Hrach Harutunyan, head of the criminal in- government officials who had been linked to vestigation department, in retaliation for a the slain prime minister, while reshuffling paper he wrote that was critical of Harutunyan others. In May, the minister of defense was and the investigation into the October 1999 replaced with a close Kochariyan associate, parliamentary shootings. On July 8, local Serge Sarkisyan. authorities reportedly removed copies of Azg Some of the suspects detained during the newspaper from newsstands because it con- investigation said they were ill-treated in tained an article critical of them. custody. Detainees were also reportedly denied access to lawyers and family mem- Defending Human Rights bers. Nairi Hunaniyan, the chief suspect in Human rights monitoring groups func- the shootings, retracted testimony he said he tioned, but there was a lack of vigorous and was coerced into signing after being physi- open public debate about important human cally abused, and on July 25 denounced his rights issues. state-appointed lawyer. Armenian National Television Deputy Director Harutiun The Role of the International Harutunyan also stated that he was subjected Community to physical abuse while in detention. Harutunyan was arrested in January after United Nations being accused of participation in the crime, The U.N. Committee on the Rights of but later released. the Child said in January that there were On March 22 several gunmen attempted significant gaps in the preparation of to assassinate Arkady Ghukasian, who held Armenia’s initial report to the committee. the title of president of the ethnic Armenian The committee noted that cooperation with separatist Nagorno Karkbakh region in nongovernmental organizations in prepara- Azerbaijan. After the attempt, a number of tion of the report had been limited and recom- individuals were arrested, including the mended that civil society be included in all enclave’s former defense minister, Samvel stages of implementation of the Convention Babayan, his brother Karen Babayan, and of the Rights of the Child. The committee also several of Babayan’s bodyguards. Babayan expressed concern over a broad range of and other defendants reported that they were issues, including children living and working physically abused in custody and deprived of on the streets and about allegations that access to lawyers. On March 28, Nagorno young children had been conscripted into the Karabakh authorities ordered journalist armed forces. The committee reiterated con- Vaghram Aghauaniyan to serve one year of cerns previously expressed by the U.N. imprisonment for libel after dubious proceed- Human Rights Committee and the U.N. Com- ings in which Aghauaniyan alleged he was mittee on the Elimination of Discrimination denied the right to call witnesses. against Women that the government has failed Although newspapers in Yerevan re- to acknowledge and address the issue of printed Aghauaniyan’s article alleging mis- domestic violence. conduct on the part of the Nagorno Karabakh The committee also expressed serious prime minister, Armenia lacked a vigorous concern regarding the absence of a system of independent press. A record of physical juvenile justice in Armenia, and in particular assaults on journalists for which the govern- the length and conditions of pretrial deten- ment had failed to bring perpetrators to ac- tion, limited access to visitors for children count, as well as spurious libel suits, had detained prior to trial, the often dispropor- ARMENIA 273 tionate length of sentences in relation to the work necessary to guarantee the rule of law seriousness of offences, the frequent deten- and respect for human rights. tions of juveniles with adults, and the absence The Parliamentary Assembly’s condi- of facilities for the physical and psychologi- tions included adoption of a number of new cal rehabilitation and social reintegration of laws, including on the media, on political juvenile offenders. parties, on nongovernmental organizations, In May, the U.N. Committee against on the establishment of an ombudsman office, Torture had been set to examine Armenia’s on the civil service, and on alternative military second periodic report about implementation service. The assembly required that amend- of the Convention against Torture and Other ments to the current law on local authorities Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or be made to give them greater independence. Punishment, but one month prior to the With regard to the court system, it required meeting, the Armenian government canceled that independence of the judiciary be fully its appearance. guaranteed, that the Judicial Council be re- formed to ensure its independence, and that Organization for Security and access to the Constitutional Court be granted Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to individuals in certain instances. It also In July, the OSCE chairperson-in-office, stipulated as a condition the transfer of cer- Benita Ferrero-Waldner, traveled to Yerevan tain detention facilities from the responsibil- officially to open an OSCE office. The office ity of the Ministries of Internal Affairs and had actually begun activities in February. National Security to the Ministry of Justice. Ferrero-Waldner stated that economic devel- opment in Armenia could only be enhanced if European Union there was significant progress toward a politi- The Second Annual E.U.-Armenia Co- cal settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh con- operation brought E.U. praise for human flict. Negotiations to resolve the conflict had rights improvements and promises of contin- been ongoing, with no tangible results, for the ued E.U. assistance aimed at facilitating reso- past several years under the auspices of the lution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and OSCE Minsk Group. further improvement in democratization and The new OSCE office engaged in a num- human rights. ber of projects, including review of legislation and administration of the electoral framework United States in line with recommendations made by OSCE In May a U.S.-Armenia Task Force on election observers, training of prison staff, Economic Reform held its first meeting. At public awareness of human rights, and a round its initial meeting, the task force said that it table on tolerance for ethnic and religious would concentrate its efforts on private sec- groups. tor development, combating corruption, and Armenia’s energy needs. The administration Council of Europe requested renewed foreign assistance, stated On June 28, the Parliamentary Assem- that the U.S. supported assistance to help bly of the Council of Europe voted favorably transform Armenia into a democracy based on Armenia’s accession to the organization, on the rule of law with an active civil society but full membership as of this writing still and free markets, at peace with its neighbors required a favorable Committee of Ministers and integrated in the world economy. Offi- decision. Although the Parliamentary As- cials argued that Armenia would thus be less sembly maintained that progress had been likely to engage in armed conflict with made, the long list of conditions that Armenia Azerbaijan or to disrupt the export of hydro- would be required to meet after accession carbons from the Caspian Basin. Secure routes served only to highlight just how far the for oil and gas transit from the region, and country was from establishing the legal frame- through Turkey, were a key U.S. policy 274 ARMENIA/AZERBAIJAN

concern in the region. Azerbaijan’s election law on July 5 and then amended it on July 21. As a result of these International Financial Institutions amendments, and in the words of the Organi- In September, the World Bank approved zation for Security and Cooperation’s Office the equivalent of U.S. $11.4 million for judi- for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights cial reform in Armenia. The project, with the (OSCE/ODIHR), which had been providing aim of assisting in the development of an assistance with election legislation since 1998, independent, accessible, and efficient judi- the “current legislation does not provide for ciary, was a welcome attempt at improving the full participation of all main political legal institutions that were woefully inca- interests in the election administration’s de- pable of addressing the country’s abysmal cision-making process and is therefore a step human rights practices. It included assistance back compared to the legislation initially in the area of court administration, infrastruc- adopted.” Moreover, no provisions were ture rehabilitation, training of judges and made for domestic observers in that law. court personnel, improved enforcement of Opposition groups protested the law on court decisions, and increased access to legal April 29. According to domestic sources, information. more than fifty people were injured when police armed with clubs beat demonstrators, scores of protesters were sentenced to three to fifteen days of imprisonment on misde- AZERBAIJAN meanor charges, and others were fined and later released. Criminal cases were brought Human Rights Developments against eleven of the detained, including Vagif The succession to Azerbaijan’s ailing Hajibeyli, chairman of the Ahrar party, and president, Heydar Aliyev, dominated politi- members of the prominent opposition par- cal debate in 2000. Since the speaker of ties Popular Front and Musavat. Authorities parliament was next in the line of succession, subsequently rejected numerous permit ap- obstacles to a free and fair vote for the plications for public demonstrations—espe- November 5 parliamentary elections gained cially those that envisaged more than fifty greater prominence. The Parliamentary As- participants (anything larger than a picket). sembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) On June 13, President Aliyev signed into law voted on June 28 to recommend Azerbaijan’s the controversial Law on NGOs, which barred accession and asked Azerbaijan “to ensure domestic NGOs from monitoring elections if that its planned elections be free and impar- they received certain levels of foreign funding. tial, liberate or re-try prisoners held on ‘po- As a result, this law prevented For the Sake litical grounds’ and guarantee freedom of of Civil Society, which had observed the 1999 expression and the independence of the me- and 1995 elections, from monitoring the dia.” While the government in 2000 adopted November vote. several laws that aimed to strengthen civic In September, the Central Election Com- freedoms, its human rights record remained mission (CEC) rejected the registration of poor, and the PACE recommendation of most parties, including Musavat, and the accession was premature. Azerbaijani Democratic Party, among others, The government tried to manipulate by declaring signature lists invalid. Individual parliamentary elections by adopting an un- candidates faced similar problems. Spurious fair election law, wilfully delaying the regis- reasons for disqualifications were abundant. tration of opposition parties and candidates, Dubious “experts” rejected numerous signa- cracking down on critical journalists and media tures on opposition signature lists as false, outlets, and banning most domestic, nonpar- even though many of these signatures were tisan nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) shown by the opposition candidates to be from monitoring the vote. Parliament enacted legitimate. By contrast, the signature lists of AZERBAIJAN 275 pro-government candidates and parties were tary elections, interrogated him for several abundant despite opposition allegations of hours without a lawyer, and searched his fraud. In a controversial decision, in response apartment. Authorities charged Arifoglu with to international pressure, on October 6 Presi- serious crimes, including conspiracy to com- dent Aliyev requested that the CEC reverse mit a terrorist act, an airplane hijacking, calling its rulings barring all but five of the thirteen for a coup d’etat, and illegal possession of a parties that applied to contest the elections firearm (allegedly planted on him by the under the party list system. On October 8, police). Arifoglu was released on October 5, the supposedly independent CEC complied but charges against him remained and he was by registering all parties for the proportional required to submit a written assurance that he ballot. would not flee the city before the trial. As the pre-election cycle heated up, the According to Radio Free Europe/Radio authorities used arbitrary licensing laws, fines, Liberty, electricity to the independent chan- and trumped-up tax charges to intimidate the nel, ANS, was cut for fifteen minutes on July opposition media. On May 8, Elmar Husseinov 14 in order to censor an interview with Chechen found the office of his weekly journal, Moni- field commander Shamil Basaev that was tor Weekly (formerly Monitor), sealed by the being aired at the time because the government Baku tax inspectorate, allegedly for printing felt that the interview contained terrorist articles critical of Aliyev. The independent propaganda. Electricity cuts by regional newspaper, Uch Nokta, had battled the courts authorities during opposition candidates’ from November 1999, and faced large fines as broadcasts were a common complaint of well as closure for months prior to the elec- opposition parties in the final weeks before tions. The editor-in-chief and founder, the parliamentary vote. Khoshgadam Bakhshaliyeva, claimed that Advances in religious freedom came only state pressure was meant to serve as a warning upon intervention of the president’s office, to editors who might consider criticizing the indicating that religious tolerance was not government in the run-up to the elections. A institutionalized in Azerbaijan. After a spate large fine was imposed on the newspaper of attacks, primarily on evangelical Chris- Avropa for publishing reports that Hussein tians toward the end of 1999, in November Husseinov, a high-ranking government em- 1999 President Aliyev made a statement ployee, was the subject of a corruption inves- committing the country to greater religious tigation in Uzbekistan. The Azerbaijan Broad- freedom. In December 1999 the authorities casting Agency (ABA), an independent sta- registered the Jehovah’s Witnesses, after in- tion that does not broadcast political material, tervention from the president’s office. How- was suddenly closed from October 3 until ever, according to Keston News Service, at October 13. The closure appeared related to the end of 1999 the authorities deported the a visit paid to the station by two opposition German pastor of a Lutheran church congre- parties who expressed an interest in purchas- gation. ing air time but were rejected. The president, In June, President Aliyev issued a decree Faiq Zulfugarov, believed that the closure providing amnesty to many political prison- was a threat from the government not to get ers, and in October, dozens were released by involved in politics. He worried that his presidential pardon. Casting serious doubt on station would be closed again following the official statements that these were the last elections. political prisoners in Azerbaijan, however, Yeni Musavat (New Musavat), an op- human rights groups claimed hundreds re- position newspaper, was a particular target. mained in custody, chiefly those convicted In February, their Nakhichevan offices were on charges related to terrorism, alleged coup ransacked. On August 22, police arrested attempts, and abuse of office. At the end of Rauf Arifoglu, editor of Yeni Musavat and September, prison authorities reportedly Musavat party candidate for the parliamen- charged many of these prisoners with disci- 276 AZERBAIJAN

plinary offenses in what prisoners said were accountability for it. Upon the committee’s trumped up accusations intended to justify recommendation, Sir Nigel Rodley, the U.N. arbitrary confinement in punishment cells or special rapporteur on torture, conducted a transfers to harsher prison regimes. Signifi- fact-finding mission to Azerbaijan in May. cantly, under a new penal code that entered into force in September, many prisoners with Organization for Security and good records would have been eligible for Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) early release. The OSCE officially opened an office in Breaking an impasse between the Inter- Baku in July designed, according to its man- national Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) date, to “promote the implementation of and the government, an agreement was reached OSCE principles and commitments as well as on June 1 allowing ICRC staff members to the co-operation between the OSCE and the visit detainees. The accord granted ICRC Republic of Azerbaijan in all the OSCE di- representatives access to all places of deten- mensions, including human, political, eco- tion and to all detainees—both sentenced and nomic and environmental aspects of security unsentenced. On June 23, ICRC staff, includ- and stability.” Under the auspices of the ing a medical delegate, visited Gobustan Minsk Group, the OSCE made several efforts prison—a facility administered by the Min- to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. istry of Justice and with a history of prob- Concerning electoral progress, it issued sev- lems. eral statements, among others noting that the July 5 election law contained “serious short- Defending Human Rights comings” and that it was “extremely con- Domestic nongovernmental organiza- cerned that seven political parties were de- tions remained active throughout 2000, as nied registration by the [CEC]....” After Aliyev demonstrated by their regular criminal re- intervened, the remaining parties were regis- porting, especially with regard to the elec- tered. tions, and their dissemination of information. Eldar Ismailov, head of the domestic monitor- Council of Europe ing organization, For the Sake of Civil Soci- The Parliamentary Assembly voted on ety, protested the Law on NGOs that was June 28 to recommend to the Committee of adopted in July, for it barred his organization Ministers that Azerbaijan be admitted to the from monitoring the November 5 elections as Council of Europe (COE). This move se- it had in past elections. verely undermined the council’s leverage The authorities responded by putting with the government to foster the implemen- economic pressure on the protesting NGOs. tation of legal and institutional reform (in- Local utility charges were doubled, and orga- cluding reformed courts, police, and nizations were required to pay these bills in procuracy) desperately needed to improve a timely manner or be shut down—at a time Azerbaijan’s human rights record. At the time when other organizations were not under the of this writing, the committee had yet to act same constraints. on that PACE resolution. The PACE recommendation favoring The Role of the International Azerbaijan’s membership found that Community Azerbaijan is “moving towards a democratic, pluralist society in which human rights and United Nations the rule of law are respected....” However, the In November 1999, the U.N. Committee document’s lengthy list of conditions which against Torture reviewed Azerbaijan’s initial the country was required to meet after its report. The committee expressed concern accession indicated just the opposite: that the that torture was not expressly criminalized government has made very little progress. and about reports of torture and the lack of The wide-ranging post-accession require- AZERBAIJAN/REPUBLIC OF BELARUS 277 ments included ratification of a number of significant treaties, an overhaul of domestic REPUBLIC OF election laws, strengthening of parliament— currently little more than a rubber stamp— BELARUS relative to the executive, reform of procedures on appointment of judges, opening individual’s Human Rights Developments access to the constitutional court, and regis- Respect for human rights deteriorated as tration of nongovernmental associations. The Belarusian president Lukashenka maintained PACE also proposed adoption of a law allow- his grip on power and the government staged ing the right to an alternative to military deeply flawed parliamentary elections. An- service, a law on the media, a law on ethnic other well-known opposition figure “disap- minorities, and a law on lawyers’ associa- peared” in July, while the year witnessed a tions. Other measures required included the spate of political show trials. In the run-up release of political prisoners, prosecution of to parliamentary elections the government law enforcement officials responsible for tor- intensified its crackdown on the opposition, ture, and improved access of humanitarian which struggled to remain unified in calling for organizations to prisons. At the request of the a boycott. Due to extensive election viola- government, the Council of Europe also de- tions, no intergovernmental organization rec- ployed an election assistance group to pro- ognized the election results. vide advice regarding the organization of elec- On July 7, Russian Public Television tions. (ORT) cameraman Dmitri Zavadsky traveled to Minsk-2 airport where he was to have European Union picked up a colleague, but Zavadsky never In October, the E.U. and Azerbaijan arrived. Police found his car, reportedly conducted their second annual Cooperation wiped clean of fingerprints, in the airport Council meeting under the Partnership and parking lot. Not active in politics, Zavadsky Cooperation Agreement. The council ad- rose to prominence in 1997, when he spent dressed human rights issues in the bilateral three months in jail following arrest while relationship, including Azerbaijan’s obliga- filming at the border in a controversial inci- tion to implement OSCE and COE commit- dent. Zavadsky’s nonappearance was widely ments. Reflecting the lack of progress over attributed to the government’s campaign to the past year, public statements following the intimidate the media prior to the parliamen- meeting were more guarded about the rela- tary elections. tionship than after the 1999 council meeting. In December 1999, Tamara Vinnikova, thought to have been detained in April 1999, United States reappeared in Western Europe. Vinnikova The U.S. State Department monitored told the media she had fled the country events surrounding the parliamentary elec- because she feared for her life. There was no tions and issued many statements criticizing news as to the welfare or whereabouts of three the government’s campaign conduct. It con- others—former interior minister Yury demned the Azerbaijani parliament’s deci- Zakharenka, opposition activist Victor sion to allow the Central Election Commis- Gonchar, and publisher Anatoly Krasovsky— sion to function without opposition party who were also last seen in 1999. members present. It chastised Azerbaijan for At a March 25 demonstration police continuing its distorted registration policy detained over 200 persons, including thirty preventing certain political parties from par- journalists, three Polish parliamentary offi- ticipating. And it described the election law as cials, and a U.S. employee of the local OSCE “seriously flawed.” Nevertheless, it sup- office. Although the journalists and officials ported Azerbaijan’s accession to the Council were released after a few hours, police confis- of Europe. cated video and audio recordings. At other 278 REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

demonstrations police arbitrarily and some- workplace to join state unions or lose their times violently arrested participants. jobs. Members typically smuggled copies of In the first of a series of politically the Independent Trade Union newspaper motivated trials of opposition activists in Rabochi (The Worker) into their place of 2000, the Belarusian Supreme Court on Janu- work under their clothing. On December 16, ary 14 sentenced former minister of agricul- police detained seven members of the Inde- ture Vasily Leonov to a four-year prison term pendent Trade Union of Steel Workers and for “bribery” and “abuse of power.” On confiscated 3,000 copies of Rabochi outside March 17, a Minsk court sentenced Andrei the entrance to the Minsk Automobile Plant. Klimov, entrepreneur, leading government Months of OSCE-mediated negotiations critic, and member of the disbanded Thir- between the opposition and the government teenth Supreme Soviet, to six years of impris- failed to ensure free or fair parliamentary onment for “embezzlement” in a decision elections on October 15 or broader media considered politically motivated. Klimov access. Central to the dispute was a deeply was arrested one day after he distributed a flawed electoral code, adopted on January 31, letter detailing constitutional violations com- that ignored all of the OSCE-recommended mitted by the Lukashenka administration. amendments. The code failed to address the Klimov was severely beaten by prison guards imbalance of power between the president on December 13, 1999, and appeared bare- and parliament or to include opposition rep- foot in court in torn clothes. He was later resentatives on the various local election hospitalized and diagnosed as suffering from commissions. While media access for the concussion. opposition was guaranteed on paper, in prac- On May 19, a Minsk court sentenced tice this was not observed. The opposition, ex-prime minister Mikhail Chygir to three grouped under the Congress of Democratic years of imprisonment for “abuse of power,” Forces, announced a boycott of the elections. suspended for two years. Chygir had been Open calls to boycott elections are outlawed arrested shortly after his announcement that under article 167(3) of the administrative he would run in the “alternative” presidential code. The police detained over one hundred elections held in May 1999 and spent over six people under this article; others were ha- months in pretrial detention. In September, rassed and fined. authorities launched a fresh criminal investi- At a September 16 rally marking one gation against him, this time for tax evasion year since the disappearance of Viktor Gonchar while Chygir worked for a German company and Anatoly Krasovsky, unidentified men in Moscow in 1996. tried to seize three opposition leaders whose On June 19, a Minsk court sentenced parties are boycotting the October elections. veteran opposition activist and Thirteenth On September 21, four masked individuals Supreme Soviet deputy Valery Shchukin and broke into and raided the headquarters of the the chair of the Belarusian Social Democratic BSDP. On September 22, the Election Com- Party (BSDP), Nikolai Statkevich, to sus- mission released a list of the 574 candidates pended jail terms for “organizing and partici- registered to run in the elections; most of the pating in mass actions that violated public opposition candidates were refused registra- order” during the October 17, 1999, Freedom tion. Belarusian authorities declared the elec- March that turned violent. Both men were tions a success, with overall turnout 60.6 also barred from participating in the October percent, but the opposition claimed wide- 2000 parliamentary and June 2001 presiden- spread election violations and an actual turn- tial elections. out of 45 percent, and thus a successful Independent trade unions came under opposition boycott. increasing pressure from the government. On December 17, 1999, authorities Members of the Independent Trade Union of passed a law amending the already restrictive Belarus faced continual pressure at their law on the press, forbidding the publication REPUBLIC OF BELARUS 279 of information on unregistered nongovern- Minsk-based Public Legal Aid organization, mental organizations, political parties, and informed a press conference that his organi- trade unions. A December 7, 1999, decree zation was being evicted from its premises for amended the law on public associations, ban- the fourth time in the past eighteen months. ning NGOs and political parties from using He said that the Ministry of Justice had a the words “Belarus,” “Republic of Belarus,” month earlier revoked his organization’s li- “national,” and “popular” in their titles. cense to provide legal aid to individuals, Authorities continued to threaten to allowing assistance only to legal entities. The close independent newspapers. On May 29, organization had initiated an independent the State Press Committee issued warnings to investigation into the fate of Yury Zakharenka the Belaruskaia Delovaia Gazeta (Belarusian and the 1999 Nemiga metro stampede trag- Business Paper) and Narodnaia Volya (The edy. On May 20, raiders broke into the Public People’s Will) for “abusing” freedom of in- Legal Aid organization’s offices, stealing com- formation. puter and office equipment. On September 13, authorities seized the On September 5, the Belarusian Asso- entire print run of Rabochi—12,000 cop- ciation of Journalists was forced to abandon ies—and detained editor-in-chief Viktor an independent press festival in Vitebsk when Ivashkevich and three others, including the authorities rescinded permission to use a local director of the offending printing press, for community center. publishing articles detailing the opposition’s plans to boycott the parliamentary elections. The Role of the International On September 21, two individuals were de- Community tained in Homel for distributing the same issue of Rabochi, and 16,500 copies were United Nations confiscated. On January 31, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Defending Human Rights met in New York to consider the third peri- The government continued to harass odic report on Belarus. While the report human rights activists and NGOs. A series of focused largely on gender inequality, espe- unsolved burglaries of NGO offices, in which cially in political life, one committee expert unknown raiders stole computer equipment, expressed concern about the lack of freedom raised suspicion of state involvement. of expression in general. On December 17, 1999, unknown per- On June 12, the U.N. special rapporteur sons raided the Minsk offices of the Belarusian on the independence of the judiciary visited Helsinki Committee, removing three com- Belarus, meeting with relevant government puters that stored the organization’s data- officials, judges, and lawyers, along with law base. Police reportedly reacted with lethargy professors and human rights groups. The to the raid, while a previous break-in and Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Pro- robbery four months earlier remained un- tection of Human Rights met at its fifty-second solved. session in August and, soft-peddling its criti- Belarusian authorities continued to ha- cism, stated that Belarus’ human rights record rass independent human rights lawyer Vera was “mixed.” Stremkovskaia, threatening her with disbar- ment from the Minsk bar association and Organization for Security and interrogating her clients. On May 31, uniden- Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) tified raiders broke in to the newly established The OSCE’s Advisory and Monitoring Center for Human Rights, of which she is Group (AMG) in Minsk spent much of the president, removing computer equipment and year in fruitless negotiations between the a photocopier. government and the opposition to resolve the On March 7, Oleg Volchek, head of the political impasse over parliamentary elec- 280 REPUBLIC OF BELARUS/BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA

tions. The OSCE issued several protests prosecution of opposition activists and called about the arrest and trial of leading opposition for charges against Mikhail Chygir, among figures and the arbitrary detention of peaceful others, to be dropped. The State Department demonstrators. The OSCE technical assess- called the parliamentary elections “not free, ment mission said of the October parliamen- fair, or transparent” in an October 16 state- tary elections, “The minimum requirements ment. were not met for the holding of free, fair, equal, accountable and open elections.” The Euro- pean parliamentary troika—the OSCE Par- liamentary Assembly, the European Parlia- BOSNIA AND ment, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe—concurred with that state- HERCEGOVINA ment. Human Rights Developments Council of Europe A breakthrough occurred in one of the Though Belarus’ special guest status in most serious of Bosnia and Hercegovina hu- the Council of Europe remained suspended, man rights issues: the return of refugees and on July 31 a Parliamentary Assembly delega- displaced persons. For the first time since the tion paid an official visit to Belarus to assess signing of the Dayton Peace Accords (DPA) whether conditions existed for free and fair refugees and displaced persons returned in elections. The delegation concluded that the relatively large numbers to areas where they Council of Europe should not send observers would be part of an ethnic minority. In other to the parliamentary elections, citing “disap- progress in human rights, nine persons were pointment” with Belarus’ lack of progress, detained who had been indicted by the Inter- although surprisingly, the assembly later national Criminal Tribunal for the Former agreed to send a limited mission. Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the death penalty was formally abolished in Republika Srpska (R.S.). European Union The progress was still not self-sus- The European Union voiced concern tained: it required the strong involvement of over the arbitrary and violent arrest of dem- the international community to ensure that onstrators, along with the trials of opposition Bosnia stayed its course to become a demo- activists. It cosponsored negotiations be- cratic state with the full protection of human tween the opposition and the government rights. over the parliamentary elections. In Novem- The April municipal elections brought ber 1999, the Belarusian government gave significant gains for the moderate Social Demo- formal approval, following slight amend- cratic Party in Bosniack areas of the federa- ments, to a 5 million euro program aimed at tion, at the expense of the nationalist Bosniak developing civil society. Party of Democratic Action (SDA). How- ever, in the Croat areas of the federation, the United States nationalist Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) The U.S. government continued its managed to maintain its position, while the policy of selective engagement, funding inde- Serb Democratic Party founded by Radovan pendent media outlets, supporting pro-de- Karadzic remained in control of the vast mocracy initiatives, and providing no direct majority of municipalities in the Republika aid to the government. On July 3, in recogni- Srpska. Parliamentary elections were sched- tion of labor rights violations, the U.S. stripped uled for November 2000. Belarus of its trade status, known as the In July, President Alija Izetbegovic an- Generalized System of Preferences, worth nounced that he would resign from the three- U.S.$26.7 million in 1999 to Belarus. The person Bosnian presidency in October 2000. State Department regularly condemned the Because the Bosnian constitution did not BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA 281 specify the succession procedure, the parlia- 2000, the U.N. high commissioner for refu- mentary assembly adopted a controversial gees (UNHCR) registered 19,751 minority law to do so. The law gave control over returns, as compared to 7,709 during the same appointment to the appointed members of period in 1999. The increased return move- the House of Peoples, excluding the directly ment, which started in late 1999, was caused elected members of the House of Represen- by several factors. The international commu- tatives from the process. The international nity had focused much more attention on community’s high representative in Bosnia, return; the legislation facilitating return was Wolfgang Petritsch, imposed an amendment finally in place, and implementation started; to rectify this. and displaced persons started to realize that if they did not return soon, they might not War Criminals return at all. This resulted in many spontane- Several more indictees were transferred ous returns: rather than waiting for organized to the ICTY’s detention unit in The Hague return, small groups of displaced persons after being detained by the NATO-led Stabi- returned and started to clean or rebuild their lization Force (SFOR). Among them was homes. Returns, albeit in small numbers, also Momcilo Krajisnik, the wartime president of took place to areas in eastern R.S. that were the Bosnian Serb assembly and a postwar previously completely closed to returnees. member of the Bosnian presidency, who was The increased return was accompanied the highest ranking politician arrested so far. by an increasing number of return-related The Krajisnik detention showed that even abuses throughout Bosnia. One of the worst high-ranking figures can be detained without abuses took place in Bratunac, where a large widespread retaliation by the civilian popu- group of protesters attacked four buses car- lation. Others arrested in 2000 included Mitar rying Bosniak returnees, and Janja, where a Vasiljevic, Dragoljub Prcac, Dusko Sikirica, series of incidents took place in March and and Dragan Nikolic, the first person indicted again in July. by the ICTY. Moreover, the Croatian au- Despite the increased number of re- thorities in March transferred Mladen Naletilic turns, over one million Bosnians remain dis- after delaying this for months for medical placed, the majority of them within Bosnia reasons. In January, indictee and notorious and Hercegovina. A survey conducted by the paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznjatovic, also UNHCR showed that 61 percent of the known as “Arkan,” was shot and killed in the displaced still wish to return to their homes. lobby of a hotel in Belgrade. However, the returns process continues to Despite the increased willingness of the face serious problems. The implementation SFOR to detain indictees, twenty-six pub- of the legislation enabling return was ex- licly indicted persons, including Bosnian Serb tremely slow. There was a lack of political wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko will to enable return, in particular among the Mladic, remained at large, while an unknown Bosnian Croat and the Bosnian Serb authori- number of others were the subject of sealed ties. indictments. The Bosnian Serb authorities, Just when the returns process was fi- despite improved cooperation with the ICTY, nally picking up speed, many donors were still had not arrested a single indictee. There- decreasing their funding for reconstruction fore, the role of the international SFOR troops and return, or pulling out altogether. Rights remained essential to the accountability pro- groups and other observers urged the interna- cess. tional community to remain committed to return, arguing that continued assistance could Return of Refugees produce speedy, substantial, and sustainable Members of minority groups returned results, while withdrawal could mean that in significant numbers for the first time since hard-fought gains would be squandered and the end of the war. In the first six months of the nationalists’ policy of ethnic cleansing 282 BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA

would have succeeded. issue permits for the reconstruction of seven mosques was still not implemented. R.S. Human Rights Institutions Prime Minister Dodik said that reconstruc- A provision in the R.S. constitution tion might begin after the November elections described the R.S. as the “state of the Serb but that any activities without permits would people,” whereas the federation constitution be stopped immediately. had a provision stating that Bosniaks and An important step was made toward the Croats were the “constituent peoples” in the independence of the judiciary by the adop- federation. In July, the Constitutional Court tion of laws governing the selection and dis- decided that these provisions were discrimi- missal of judges and prosecutors. These laws, natory and contradicted the Bosnian consti- imposed by the high representative in the tution. This decision was strongly criticized federation and adopted but later amended in by Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat politi- the R.S., provided for appointment and dis- cians, but Constitutional Court decisions are missal based on merit alone. The OHR, in binding and cannot be appealed. The decision cooperation with the United Nations Mis- may have an enormous impact, because many sion in Bosnia-Hercegovina (UNMIBH), in Bosnian laws based on the same ethnic prin- July started a comprehensive review program ciples may have to be revised. to evaluate all judges and prosecutors. In February, the R.S. National Assem- bly passed a law establishing an ombudsmen Media for the R.S. The establishment and composi- Harassment of the media was a growing tion of this institution had been the subject of problem, and numerous abuses were recorded protracted negiotiations between the Office throughout the year. The OSCE’ s Free Media of the High Representative in Bosnia and Helpline received more than one hundred Hercegovina (OHR), the Organization for complaints in a period of less than ten months. Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Zeljko Kopanja, the editor-in-chief of and the R.S. government. Ultimately, it was Nezavisne Novine who lost both legs in a car decided to create a three-person, multi-ethnic bomb explosion in October 1999, was again institution, which was expected to be able to threatened several times. The driver of federa- receive claims by the end of 2000. In July, the tion Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic attacked federation parliament passed a law harmoniz- a journalist of the daily Dnevni Avaz. In June, ing the laws on the ombudsmen institutions the SDA used a tax audit to harass Dnevni in the federation with that in the R.S., and Avaz, a daily that used to be aligned with the allowing the federation parliament to appoint SDA but recently had taken a more critical new ombudsmen in 2001. approach. The Human Rights Chamber, which R.S. Minister of Information Rajko Vasic together with the Office of the Ombudsperson called for criminal prosecution of a journalist for Bosnia and Hercegovina forms the Human for alleged false reporting, but resigned from Rights Commission, continued to issue deci- his post after being criticized severely by sions on numerous issues including employ- journalists’ associations, the OHR, and the ment discrimination, property rights, and fair OSCE. In August, Marko Asanin, a former trial. Bosnian minister and current director of the Although the human rights institutions R.S.-owned electricity company, beat and noticed increased compliance by the authori- kicked journalist Ljubisa Lazic. Many other ties with its decisions and recommendations, journalists and media outlets were attacked or funding for the institutions was still inad- received threats. equate, and several important decisions re- The federation authorities in December mained unimplemented. For instance, the 1999 presented a draft Law on Compensation Human Rights Chamber’s June 1999 decision for Damage Caused by Defamation and Libel, ordering the municipality of Banja Luka to which was severely criticized for the exces- BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA 283 sive fines it sanctioned. As of this writing, the to implement the DPA, and Petritsch im- law had not yet been adopted. The OSCE and posed many decisions on issues as diverse as the OHR together presented a draft Freedom the R.S. Law on the Prosecutors Office, the of Information Act that established the right Privatization Law, and the Law on Presiden- of access to information held by government tial Succession. Bosnian politicians contin- and other public bodies. The law, which ued to lack the political will to take these would significantly enhance media freedom, decisions themselves, and sustained interna- had not yet been passed by parliament. tional involvement remained necessary to continue the peace process and avoid a return Defending Human Rights to the brutal nationalist policies of the recent Local and international human rights past. organizations were generally able to monitor and report on the human rights situation, Stabilization Force although some organizations and monitors The NATO-led Stabilization Force in occasionally experienced harassment. The Bosnia and Hercegovina (SFOR) continued Human Rights Commission and the federa- to play a significant role in Bosnia in, among tion ombudsmen continued their important other areas, the return process. SFOR also work to ensure respect for human rights, and detained more persons indicted by the ICTY the office of the R.S. ombudsmen is expected than ever before, including Momcilo Krajisnik, to be operational by the end of 2000. the highest ranking politician apprehended so far. Despite fears that high-level arrests might The Role of the International create civil unrest, the situation remained Community relatively calm throughout Bosnia. The international community’s close The strength of SFOR was reduced to involvement continued to be necessary to some 20,000 troops, down from 30,000 the move the peace process along, as witnessed previous year, although its presence in Bosnia by the many decisions and amendments im- and Hercegovina appeared necessary for years posed by the high representative. However, to come: the peace remained fragile, and many many in the international community were feared that violence would break out again if losing patience with the slow progress in SFOR withdrew. Moreover, as the local Bosnia, and international attention was shift- authorities continued to refuse to arrest ICTY ing to other areas. indictees, it remained SFOR’s duty to bring those indicted for war crimes to face justice. Office of the High Representative The OHR continued to take the lead role United Nations in coordinating the civilian aspects of the The largest section of the United Na- Dayton Peace Agreement. High Representa- tions Mission in Bosnia and Hercegovina tive Wolfgang Petritsch maintained three ob- (UNMIBH) was the International Police Task jectives: strengthening Bosnian institutions Force (IPTF), charged with overseeing and and ensuring the rule of law, transforming the restructuring the local police forces. Lacking economy and stimulating investment, and exact information on who is engaged in law enhancing the return of displaced persons and enforcement activities, the IPTF initiated a refugees. Although Petritsch made the idea program to register, screen, and certify all that the responsibility for the future of Bosnia police officers by the end of 2001, while lies with the Bosnians and their leadership the working with the respective Ministries of the basis of his tenure as high representative, he Interior to recruit minority police officers. did not shy away from taking decisive action These efforts met with limited success: ac- to further these objectives. Numerous politi- cording to the U.N. secretary-general’s re- cal and government figures, including minis- port of June 2, the federation had around 600 ters and governors, were dismissed for failing minority officers of a total of about 11,500 284 BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA

officers; the R.S. only had fifty-seven minor- against humanity committed in the Lasva ity officers of a total of 8,500 officers. Valley and sentenced to forty-five years in The Human Rights Office (HRO) con- prison. The Appeals Chamber in July dis- tinued its work in monitoring human rights missed Anto Furundzija’s appeal and con- abuses at the hands of the police, and other firmed his ten-year sentence. After a trial measures to improve the human rights record marred first by prosecutorial misconduct in of the police forces, such as an audit of arrest withholding evidence from the accused and and custody procedures and instruction on then by disclosures that failed to respect the role of police at evictions. The U.N.’s victim amd witness privacy rights, Furundzija Judicial System Assessment Program contin- was convicted for aiding and abetting rape, ued to monitor the functioning of the judiciary among other charges. Zlatko Aleksovski saw and published reports about problems related his sentence on appeal increased to seven to implementation of amnesty legislation, years, while Dusko Tadic’s sentence was delays and detention, and trials in absentia. lowered to a maximum of twenty years. The United Nation’s High Commis- Goran Jelisic was convicted on all but one sioner for Refugees (UNHCR), together with count and sentenced to forty years of impris- the OHR, played a leading role in stimulating onment. In the Ahmici case, five Bosnian return in Bosnia, both by guiding the policy Croats were convicted and sentenced to prison and through its own programs. Unfortu- terms of six to twenty-five years, while one nately, decreases in UNHCR’s budget ham- indictee was acquitted. pered its ability to operate effectively. In 2000, the ICTY commenced trials in During its fifty-sixth session, the U.N. the Keraterm and Omarska case, the Srebrenica Commission on Human Rights adopted a case, and the Foca case. Miroslav Tadic, Simo resolution on Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia Zaric, and Milan Simic were provisionally in which it called upon the authorities to work released in May 2000, because two years on human rights issues such as the return of after their voluntary surrender a trial date had refugees, independence of the judiciary, the still not been set. role of the police, and freedom of expression. The R.S. slowly improved its coopera- Moreover, the commission renewed the man- tion with the tribunal. R.S. authorities report- date of Special Rapporteur Jiri Dienstbier, edly released files to the ICTY, and several whose December 1999 report once again high-ranking R.S. officials visited the tribu- drew attention to those and other human nal, including Prime Minister Dodik, who rights issues in Bosnia. promised that the R.S. would soon pass the On November 15, 1999, U.N. Secre- Law on Cooperation with the ICTY. tary-General Kofi Annan published a report on the events in Srebrenica from the establish- Organization for Security and ment of the Safe Area in 1993 through the fall Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of Srebrenica in July 1995, after which over The conditions for the municipal elec- 7,000 Bosniaks disappeared and were most tions organized by the OSCE were better than probably killed. The report, which was sur- in the past, although candidates continued to prisingly critical of the U.N.’s own role, was face harassement and press freedom was well received by many Bosnians, who consid- limited. Despite OSCE’s campaign encourag- ered it to be a recognition of what had actually ing Bosnians to “vote for change,” both the happened and of the mistakes made by the Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Serb ruling na- international community. tionalist parties largely managed to hold on to their positions. International Criminal Tribunal for The OSCE, together with OHR, drafted the Former Yugoslavia a new electoral code to replace the election In March, Tihomir Blaskic, a Bosnian regulations formulated in the DPA, which had Croat general, was found guilty of crimes been criticized for encouraging ethnic BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA 285 clientelism. However, the draft was criticized feasibility study for E.U. membership, which for a number of reasons, and subsequently largely overlapped with the Council of some provisions were amended, while dis- Europe’s conditions for Bosnia’s member- cussion of the most contentious issue, the ship. The prospect of closer ties with the E.U. election of the three-member presidency, was represented a possibly strong incentive for deferred to a later date. Even this amended the authorities to meet these conditions as draft could not count on parliamentary sup- soon as possible. port, and it seemed unlikely to be passed The E.U. and its member states re- without delay. mained the biggest donors of reconstruction The OSCE’s Human Rights Depart- aid in Bosnia. At the Regional Funding Con- ment, with officers throughout the country, ference held in March, the E.U. and its mem- continued its important work in monitoring ber states pledged over one billion euro in aid, human rights abuses in the field and working of which a substantial part was targeted for on policies to curb such abuses. projects involving Bosnia. In 2000, the Euro- pean Commission invested around 100 mil- Council of Europe lion euro in programs in Bosnia, mostly for In May 1999, the Council of Europe returns projects. However, the withdrawal of rapporteurs for Bosnia announced a list of the European Commission Humanitarian conditions to be fulfilled for Bosnia’s acces- Office (ECHO) strongly affected return pro- sion to the Council of Europe. New rapporteurs grams, because ECHO’s large budget (56 Laszlo Surjan and Anneli Jaatteenmaki, ap- million euro in 1999) had been very flexible pointed in late 1999 and early 2000 respec- and able to follow developing return patterns. tively, like the high representative took a There was a need for other donors to fill this prudent approach, stressing that far too many void: since most of this year’s return was of the conditions had not been met. In a spontaneous, there was an increased need for worrisome development, however, Petritsch flexible funding that would follow return and the rapporteurs for accession seemed to movements as they developed. have identified three “priority” conditions: the functioning of the common institutions, United States adoption of a new election law, and progress The United States, which forged the on some human rights issues. Emphasizing Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war these conditions at the expense of others in Bosnia, continued its close involvement in previously identified risked squandering the Bosnia, although it let the E.U., and in particu- opportunity for change represented by the lar High Representative Petritsch, take the conditions for Council of Europe member- lead role. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ship. visited Bosnia and Hercegovina in March this year to attend the official inauguration of the European Union Statute for the Brcko District, which was The European Union’s policy was based imposed by Petritsch. During the visit, Sec- on the idea of the eventual integration of retary Albright also announced U.S. $7 mil- Bosnia and Hercegovina into Europe. The lion in budget support for the R.S. govern- Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe, which ment of Prime Minister Dodik, the recipient uses the prospect of integration into Europe of continuous political and financial backing to foster good neighborly relations and accel- by the United States despite his government’s erate transition into stable democracies in the often disappointing record on crucial human Balkans, was launched in mid-1999. A con- rights issues. crete step toward integration was taken in United States assistance focused on four March when the E.U. commissioner for exter- issues: private business development, demo- nal relations, Chris Patten, handed the Bosnian cratic reform, economic transformation, and authorities a “road map” of conditions for a municipal infrastructure and services. The 286 BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA/BULGARIA

municipal infrastructure program was in- pulsion after an unresolved murder on April creasingly geared toward enhancing minority 4, 2000. return, and its successor, the U.S. $70 million The Parliament failed to adopt legisla- Community Reintegration and Stabilization tion of any kind to prevent discrimination Program (CRSP), was designed to focus ex- against Roma in education, health care, re- clusively on reconstruction of public infra- gional, urban planning, or other areas, al- structure in return areas. Continued debates though such changes were envisaged by the in the U.S. Congress over the ongoing U.S. Framework Programme for the Integration of military presence in Bosnia raised concern Roma in Bulgarian Society, adopted by the that support for the peace process might be government in April 1999. waning, just as the investment was beginning On February 29, the Constitutional to pay off. Court banned the Macedonian minority-based OMO Ilinden-Pirin party, which had been Relevant Human Rights registered in the winter of 1999. The Bulgar- Reports: ian Helsinki Committee criticized the move Unfinished Business: Return of Displaced and rejected the court’s allegation that the Persons and Other HR Issues in Bijeljina, 5/ group was advocating the secession of Pirin. 00 On January 8, six Islamic preachers were expelled for preaching without a permit under articles 22 and 23 of the Denominations Act (1949), despite a 1992 ruling by the Consti- BULGARIA tutional Court that these articles were uncon- stitutional. On August 9, Ahmad Naim Human Rights Developments Mohammed Musa, a citizen of Jordan and Abuses against Roma and restrictions permanent resident of Bulgaria, was expelled on Islamic practitioners, and trade in arms in from the country for allegedly preaching violation of a U.N. embargo offset improve- “radical” Islam. The chief mufti denied that ment in other fields in Bulgaria, notably in Musa carried on any religious activities, and freedom of expression. human rights groups stated that the Roma were victims of police brutality government’s accusation was based upon and violent attacks by private citizens who claims that a foundation Musa headed had acted with impunity. Numerous cases of provided assistance to the chief mufti’s of- police ill-treatment include the beating of two fice, helping the office obtain financial inde- young Roma, Marin Ivanov and Marin pendence from the state. Gheorghiev, in the police station in Silistra, on On January 12, the Bulgarian Parliament November 18, 1999. Sixteen-year-old abolished the penalty of imprisonment for Tsvetalin Perov suffered third-degree burns libel or slander, but replaced it the following on April 29, 2000, in police detention in day with heavy fines. President Stoyanov Vidin, after being beaten and losing con- vetoed the bill providing for the fines. On June sciousness. On 5 July Traicho Liubomirov, 1, 2000, a company owned by media tycoon a nineteen-year-old Rom, was shot dead upon Rupert Murdoch was awarded a license for arrest on suspicion of car theft in Sofia. The the first private nationwide television chan- authorities acquiesced in the harassment and nel. License applications by two Bulgarian discrimination against Roma by private citi- companies were pending as of September. zens. Ethnic Bulgarian residents in a neigh- In a report published in March, a U.N. borhood of Burgas signed a petition on No- Security Council committee investigating vio- vember 4, 1999, calling for the expulsion of lations of sanctions against Angola’s UNITA Roma and the demolition of Roma houses. rebel movement found that Bulgaria had sup- Villagers in Mechka refused to allow Roma in plied weapons and training to the rebels. public places and threatened them with ex- Bulgaria set up a commission of inquiry into BULGARIA 287 the charges; on May 9 the commission an- bers of Romani children are sent to “special nounced that it had found no evidence of a schools” for mentally disabled children, it violation of the embargo. (See Arms chapter.) concluded that the practice is less prevalent than in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Defending Human Rights Hungary. Local nongovernmental organizations continued to report vigorously on human Council of Europe rights abuses in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian On January 26, the Council of Europe’s Helsinki Committee (BHC) covered a wide Parliamentary Assembly ended a three-year range of issues. The Human Rights Project monitoring procedure for Bulgaria, on the addressed freedom of conscience and reli- grounds that the country was committed to gious freedom, while the Tolerance Founda- democratic reform and made major steps tion focused on the situation of Roma. forward on the road to democracy. A final Women’s human rights activists continued to report by the Council of Europe rapporteurs press for state action to protect women from acknowledged democratic achievement in domestic violence, advocating for changes in Bulgaria but also called for improvements in the penal code to criminalize domestic vio- the independence of the judiciary and the lence. On November 9, 1999, four members media, the rights of minorities, the function- of the parliament submitted a draft Denomi- ing of local self-government, and for addi- nations Act prepared by leading human rights tional efforts to combat corruption and police groups. The parliament rejected the draft on brutality. In the case of Velikova v. Bulgaria, February 2, 2000. regarding the 1994 police beating and death of a Roma man, Slavcho Tsonchev, the Euro- The Role of the International pean Court of Human Rights ruled on May 18 Community that Bulgaria had violated the right to life and the right to an effective remedy. United Nations On December 8, 1999, the U.N. Com- European Union mittee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights In December 1999, the European Coun- welcomed Bulgaria’s extensive efforts to com- cil opened negotiations for Bulgarian acces- ply with its obligations under the covenant. sion to the European Union. On July 5, the It expressed concern, however, with contin- European Parliament recommended to the ued discrimination against the Roma in edu- E.U. council that Bulgaria be taken off the list cation, social benefits, access to land, and of countries whose citizens need a visa to other areas. The committee also criticized enter the E.U. border-free territory. Presi- restrictions on the right to strike and the lack dent Stoyanov expressed concern on July 6 of opportunities for minorities to receive that Bulgaria was regarded as an outsider in education in their own languages. the E.U. enlargement process.

Organization for Security and United States Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) During a November 1999 visit, Presi- OSCE High Commissioner on National dent Clinton encouraged Bulgaria to persist in Minorities Hans Van der Stoel delivered a building a free society and, in apparent disre- report on the situation of Roma and Sinti in gard of ongoing abuses, hailed the country’s the OSCE area in March 2000. The high tolerance toward various ethnic groups, but commissioner criticized employment discrimi- he also raised arms trade concerns with the nation in Bulgaria and pointed out that four- Bulgarian prime minister. Prior to the visit, teen Romani men reportedly died in police the United States extended a U.S. $25 million custody between 1992 and 1998. Although grant to Bulgaria to mitigate the effects of the the report noted that disproportionate num- Kosovo crisis and to ease the social burden of 288 BULGARIA/CROATIA

economic reform. on February 21 to facilitate the return of 16,500 Croatian Serb refugees. The government’s human rights rhetoric was soon followed by concrete actions, nota- CROATIA bly in the area of cooperation with the ICTY, previously among the thorniest issues in Human Rights Developments Croatia’s relations with the international com- The election of a new government and munity. On March 2, the ICTY deputy president in Croatia at the start of 2000, prosecutor announced that Croatia had ac- following the death of President Franjo ceded to its request to provide documentation Tudjman, marked a turning point in Croatia’s related to Operation Storm and Operation post-independence respect for human rights. Flash (another 1995 offensive against rebel Attempts in late 1999 by the then-ruling Serbs). The transfer of Bosnian Croat war Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska crimes suspect Mladen Naletilic, alias “Tuta,” Demokratska Zajednica, HDZ) to affect the followed on March 21. In April, the govern- outcome of the vote through control of elec- ment permitted ICTY investigators to exam- tronic media, redistricting, and curbs on free- ine the site of an alleged 1991 massacre of Serb dom of assembly led many observers to fear civilians in the town of Gospic. By June, the that President Tudjman was unwilling to ICTY prosecutor indicated that the organiza- relinquish power to the opposition. With the tion had “full access” in Croatia. Further death of Tudjman on December 11, 1999, two moves followed the August murder of Milan weeks prior to the parliamentary elections, Levar, a Croatian veteran from Gospic present those fears remained untested, and the oppo- during the 1991 killings who had assisted the sition coalition captured a large parliamen- ICTY investigation. In early September, tary majority in the January 3 vote. The Croatian police arrested two Croatian army resultant change in political culture was so generals and ten others in connection with war swift that both candidates in the second round crimes committed in Croatia and Bosnia. Ten of voting for president on February 7 were suspects in Levar’s murder were also ar- from opposition parties. rested. The new government headed by Prime Considerable progress was made in leg- Minister Ivica Racan, and the incoming presi- islative reform during the first session of the dent Stipe Mesic, moved quickly to demon- parliament. Key reforms included the April strate their commitment to human rights and annulment of article 18 of the law on internal respect for Croatia’s international obliga- affairs, which gave the police wide powers of tions. On January 28, Foreign Minister Tonino surveillance over citizens, new laws on mi- Picula acknowledged that the International nority languages and education on April 27, Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the mostly positive changes to the con- (ICTY) had jurisdiction over Operation Storm, stitutional law on human rights and the pro- the controversial 1995 action against rebel tection of minorities on May 11. The long- Serbs that left several hundred thousand awaited amendments to the reconstruction Croatian Serbs as refugees. On February 8, law on June 1 and to the law on areas of special the government unveiled its legislative pro- state concern on June 14, for the first time gram, committing itself to reform state televi- offered the prospect of equal treatment for sion, to uphold minority rights, and to carry displaced and refugee Serbs seeking to return out the legislative and administrative changes to their homes in Croatia. At the time of necessary to facilitate the return of Serb writing, necessary amendments to reform the refugees. In a newpaper interview two days telecommunications law and a new bill to later, President Mesic invited all Serb refu- reform the state broadcaster were pending gees to return to Croatia. The new govern- before the parliament. ment submitted a U.S.$55 million proposal Doubts about the composition of the CROATIA 289 new Constitutional Court were allayed by Ministry of Justice that all pending war three important rulings in its first months. crimes cases be reviewed by local prosecutors The court’s decisions in February and April (and repeated international requests that such to strike articles on defamation and libel from cases be reviewed first by the ICTY), a the law on public information and the penal Vukovar court convicted eleven Serbs of war code greatly reduced the state’s ability to crimes on May 22, ten of them in absentia. In suppress critical reporting. (Amendments to addition, more Serbs were arrested on war bring the penal code into line with the ruling crimes charges, including several who had passed their first parliamentary reading on recently returned from Serbia with clearance June 1). In February the court revoked further from the Croatian government. The July provisions of the law on association uphold- decision by an Osijek court to acquit five ing the previous court’s stance on the law. In prominent Serbs previously convicted on a crucial ruling for the restitution of tenancy dubious war crimes charges was a more hope- rights, in May the court reversed a civil court ful sign. decision that stripped a Montenegrin of his The depth of mistrust between the Croat tenancy rights on the grounds of alleged war- and Serb communities was underscored by time activities, a justification used to deprive the murders in March of a recently returned Croatian Serbs of their tenancy rights in the Serb man and an elderly Serb woman by local early 1990s. Most former tenancy right hold- Croats, although the police made prompt ers seeking restitution continued to lack any arrests in both cases. Confidence among re- legal recourse, however. turning Serbs was undermined by the defacing Improvements to the situation of Serbs of a monument to Serbs killed during the in Croatia were not confined to government Second World War on May 17, and a poster statements and legislative reform. In April, campaign in Karlovac, Petrinja, and Sisak the government replaced the much-criticized listing local Serbs alleged to have committed Commission on Return with a new high-level war crimes. The demolition of 300 war- body to oversee refugee return. On June 6, damaged Serb homes by local authorities in refugees associations in Croatia and Bosnia’s Gospic on June 5 sent a similar signal. Republika Srpska agreed to cooperate on the Improvements in the treatment of Serbs two-way return of Bosnian Croats and stood in contrast to the continuing difficulties Croatian Serbs. A month later UNHCR an- faced by Croatia’s Roma population. Many nounced an significant increase in return re- of the estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Roma in quests from Croatian Serbs in Republika Croatia lacked access to education and em- Srpksa. By September, more than 10,000 ployment, faced discrimination in the provi- Serbs had returned through organized pro- sion of state assistance and housing, and had grams with several thousand more returning difficulty obtaining citizenship, as well as unassisted. suffering racist attacks. The experience of the The legacy of official discrimination 420 Roma in Strmec Prodravski illustrated against Serbs proved hard to erase, despite the the wider problems facing Roma communi- commitment of the new government in Zagreb. ties: In May, local authorities in Varazdin Reports from Organization for Security and country ordered the Roma to move from their Cooperation in Europe monitors indicated settlement in the village after refusing to allow that many returning Serbs did not remain in them to build more permanent dwellings and Croatia. Administrative discrimination by a water and electricity supply. the HDZ-dominated local authorities and local courts against Serbs continued, with Defending Human Rights little progress made on the restitution of There were no reports of restrictions on property to Serb owners. Progress on the the freedom to monitor by international or depoliticization of domestic war crimes trials local nongovernmental organizations in was mixed: despite a recommendation by the Croatia. The confidence and professionalism 290 CROATIA

of Croatia’s local NGOs was exemplified by report, as well as the upbeat assessment of the their participation in the presidential and OSCE high commissioner on national minori- parliamentary elections, including the voter ties during his May 25 visit. At time of this registration and education campaign by the writing, the OSCE police monitoring group in Glas (Voice) 1999/2000 coalition and election the Danube region in Croatia was to cease monitoring by GONG (Gradjani Organizirano operations on October 31. Nadgledaju Glasanje Citizens Organized to Monitor Elections). The improved situation Council of Europe permitted an increased focus on training and During a June 21 visit to Zagreb, Lord development by human rights groups, includ- Russell-Johnston, president of the Parlia- ing the Croatian Helsinki Committee. mentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) indicated that Croatia had now met The Role of the International most of its outstanding membership require- Community ments. On September 26, PACE voted to terminate the monitoring procedure for After years of conditioning improved Croatia. relations on progress in Croatia’s human rights record, the international community European Union moved quickly to reward the new authorities The European Union signaled its major in Zagreb for their reform agenda with closer support for the Croatian government’s ef- political and economic ties. Croatia was forts in March by upgrading its office in granted admission to the North Atlantic Treaty Zagreb into a permanent delegation. Even Organization’s Partnership for Peace on May more significant was its decision in June 25 and to the World Trade Organization on opening the way for negotiations on a stabi- July 18, and its U.S. $55 million refugee return lization and association agreement with Croatia proposal was fully funded through the Stabil- in October, with a view to eventual integra- ity Pact in March. tion into the E.U. Croatia also received 23 million euro (approximately U.S. $23.2 mil- United Nations lion) in E.U. financial assistance, including At its annual review of human rights in 13.5 million euro (U.S. $16.6 million) to the former Yugoslavia on April 18, the U.N. support refugee return. Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution recommending that Croatia be United States dropped from the mandate of its special The United States moved to strengthen rapporteur provided that it made continued its already close ties to Zagreb following the progress by its next session. The U.N. high elections, supporting Croatia’s admission to commissioner for human rights maintained the Partnership for Peace (PFP) and sponsor- her field office in Croatia. The mandate of the ing the resolution at the U.N. Commission on U.N. observer mission in the disputed Prevlaka Human Rights, following visits to Croatia by region was renewed by the Security Council U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in until January 2001. January and February. In a long awaited move, U.S. President Bill Clinton invited the Organization for Security and Croatian president and prime minister to Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Washington on August 9, announcing U.S. Croatia’s greatly improved relations $30 million of support, including U.S.$5 with the OSCE were evidenced by the request million pledged earlier to support return. of its foreign minister on March 23 that the mandate of the OSCE mission to Croatia be extended until the end of 2000, and by the positive tone of the mission’s July 3 progress CROATIA/CZECH REPUBLIC 291

Relevant Human Rights Watch disproportionate numbers of Romani chil- Reports: dren into special schools designed for children Croatia’s Democracy Deficit: A Pre-Elec- with mental disabilities. Although Romani toral Assessment, 12/99 children represent less than 5 percent of primary school students in Ostrava, they constitute over 50 percent of the special school population. Nationwide, 75 percent CZECH REPUBLIC of Romani children attend special schools, comprising over half of the population of all Human Rights Developments special schools. Last October, the Czech The Czech government announced the Constitutional Court dismissed the case, ar- formation of a Human Rights Council in guing that it lacks the authority to rule on January to prepare legislative proposals and societal discrimination as a whole and can advise the government on human rights is- consider “only particular circumstances of sues. The council submitted proposals to the individual cases.” In January, the Parlia- counter discrimination in education, housing, ment eliminated a 1984 Schools Law provi- and employment in May. Despite these sion that had barred students attending spe- positive steps, increasing racial violence cial schools from enrolling in secondary against the ethnic Roma minority demon- schools. The applicants charge that this strated an alarming pattern of neglect on the amendment only served “to remove the for- part of police and legal authorities in failing to mal—but not the practical—prohibition investigate and prosecute hate crime. This against admission to non-vocational [second- pattern included lenient sentences for perpe- ary] schools” and failed to address de facto trators of hate crimes, incompetent and pro- discriminatory policies. tracted investigations, and little recourse for In January, the Ministry of the Interior victims who in many cases feared reprisals. responded to E.U. accession demands to On February 5, “skinhead” thugs alleg- tighten border controls by setting new restric- edly physically attacked and shouted racist tions on asylum and procedures for foreigners insults at five Roma and one non-Roma in the to establish legal residence, introducing visa town of Nachod. The victims identified some requirements for certain visitors and requiring of the attackers to the police but later said the them to show proof of secured accommoda- police had neither made arrests or even taken tion, financial resources, and health insur- down the suspects’ names. Local officials ance. The new policy came under attack from claimed that there was no evidence indicating human rights organizations for making unrea- a racially motivated attack. As of August 1, sonable demands on asylum applicants by the investigation remained open. forcing them to apply for visas in their home In a July ruling, a Czech soldier who country rather than upon arrival in the Czech attacked an American teacher in November Republic. The Czech Helsinki Committee 1998 in Hodinin was found guilty of “hooli- (CHC) observed that the law singles out ganism and assault” and sentenced to a sus- people from so-called problem countries— pended two-year prison term. The victim among them, all of South America, Africa, and was beaten after defending a group of Roma, the Ukraine—for especially tight restrictions. whom the soldier had insulted; nevertheless, An amendment to the January law that relaxes the judge ruled out any racial motivation. some of these restrictions was approved by On April 18, the parents of eighteen the cabinet in July and sent to the Parliament; Romani children from the city of Ostrava critics of the earlier law argue that the pro- lodged an application with the European posed changes fail to address several key Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg issues. accusing the Czech state of practicing “dis- The Czech Republic’s position as a crimination” and “segregation” by channeling country of origin, transit, and destination for 292 CZECH REPUBLIC

trafficking in women drew attention from the of Commissioner for Human Rights Petr Uhl press and international bodies. In January, and the Human Rights Council, the festival Ukrainian and Czech police successfully urged legislators to support a new bill autho- broke a gang trafficking women into forced rizing partnership registration, although the prostitution in the Czech Republic. Unfor- Parliament had rejected a similar bill in De- tunately, law enforcement’s efforts to curb cember 1999. trafficking tended to disregard the legitmate fears of retaliation and needs expressed by The Role of the International trafficking victims. Similarly, legislators failed Community to adopt legal protections to facilitate vic- tims’ cooperation as witnesses in cases against United Nations traffickers. La Strada, a local NGO, struggled In its August concluding observations, to provide protection for victims and educate the Committee on the Elimination of Racial women on the dangers of trafficking. Discrimination (CERD) praised the Toler- Attention focused on Czech police con- ance Project, a public awareness campaign to duct in September when Prague hosted the curb racial discrimination. However, the re- annual IMF and World Bank meetings, along port voiced concern over the continued sub- with an estimated 9,000 protestors. On jection of Roma to discrimination and vio- September 26, protesters clashed violently lence and urged the government to implement with police, leading to some six hundred existing hate crime legislation and eradicate injuries and more than eight hundred arrests. racial segregation in education and housing. Following the meetings, the Czech Helsinki Committee undertook an investigation into European Union accusations of police brutality and abuse of The Czech Republic remained in the power against detained protestors. Its initial forefront among states in line for accession to investigation had found that many detainees the E.U. In its September review of the Czech were denied access to the telephone, legal Republic’s preparation for accession, the assistance, interpreters, and food or water for E.U.-Czech Republic Association Council many hours after their arrest, and some com- noted that while the Czech Republic contin- plained of physical abuse by the police. The ued to fulfill the Copenhagen political criteria, Interior Ministry announced that it would progress was still needed in reforming the conduct an internal investigation into police judiciary and improving the human rights actions; the police denied the charges of situation of Roma. Although the E.U. acces- systematic abuse while refusing to rule out sion process proved a positive incentive on misconduct by individual officers. most human rights issues, it pressured Czech authorities to introduce worrisome restric- Defending Human Rights tions on asylum. Human rights groups operated relatively freely, despite efforts by Prime Minister Council of Europe Milos Zeman’s government to deflect media The European Commission on Racism criticism. The Counseling Center for Citizen- and Intolerance’s (ECRI) “Second Annual ship/Civil and Human Rights (CCC/CHR) Report on the Czech Republic” expressed issued recommendations on reducing dis- concern about the continuation of racist vio- crimination. The Czech Helsinki Committee lence directed toward Roma. The report released reports on the protection of children, recommended that Czech authorities take the police and prison system, and the new further actions to combat racism and intoler- asylum and foreigners legislation. A coalition ance by enacting anti-racist legislation in edu- of gay and lesbian activists organized cation and employment. “Aprilfest,” a series of discussions and events on gay and lesbian issues. With the support CZECH REPUBLIC/GEORGIA 293

United States pated in some of the attacks, while in other At a June hearing before the United instances they failed to investigate and to States Commission on Security and Coopera- bring to justice the violent adherents of a tion in Europe (CSCE), witnesses testified nationalist group led by a defrocked Georgian that current laws to protect Roma fall short Orthodox priest known as Father Basili. of their intended goals. These concerns were Lower courts failed to rule inadmissable a suit echoed in the State Department’s annual filed by Guram Sharadze, an extreme nation- report on human rights practices. alist member of Parliament, which sought to annul the registration of the Jehovah’s Wit- Organization for Security and ness church. A lower court’s favorable ruling Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to annul the registration was on appeal to the The high commissioner on national mi- Supreme Court. norities’ March report on the situation of Violent attacks on nontraditional reli- Roma and Sinti in the OSCE area criticized the gious groups escalated in the months follow- Czech government for failing to enforce laws ing the elections. On August 16, several proscribing racially motivated violence, de- journalists were beaten by members of Father spite having the largest number of skinhead Basili’s organization as they were covering a attacks reported in the region. It called on the trial involving adherents to the Jehovah’s government to adopt affirmative action mea- Witness faith at Guldani District Court. Two sures in employment and to address the defendants on trial had been victims of a persistent negative stereotyping of Roma in previous assault in October 1999, yet had the media and in statements. themselves been charged for the attack by the authorities. On August 17, about forty mem- bers of Father Basili’s organization assaulted human rights defenders and a journalist as GEORGIA they left the trial and court security officers failed to intervene. On August 20, Tianeti Human Rights Developments District police destroyed a meeting place of President Eduard Shevardnadze won the Baptist Evangelical Church and briefly reelection on April 9, 2000, to a second detained and threatened its pastor. On Sep- five-year term. The elections were marred by tember 8, masked police officers wielding irregularities. Georgia’s already poor human clubs forcibly dispersed a Jehovah’s Witness rights record deteriorated, as economic and gathering in Zugdidi. Almost seven hundred social conditions worsened. Legal reforms members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were unraveled and the government failed to take forced to flee, and several were beaten by steps to reign in widespread corruption among police. On September 17, Father Basili and a senior government officials closely linked to large group of his followers, accompanied by President Shevardnadze. police from Marnueli District, looted a meet- An OSCE international election moni- ing site built for a gathering of Jehovah’s toring mission concluded in its final report Witnesses. Several Jehovah’s Witnesses were that “considerable progress is necessary for dragged off buses and beaten, while others Georgia to fully meet its commitments as a were robbed of their personal belongings. On participating state of the OSCE” and that September 28, police officers from Guldani “steps should be taken to restore the confi- and Nadzaladevi arrived without a warrant at dence of opposition parties and voters in an ashram belonging to followers of the Hare future elections.” Krishna organization, and attempted to con- Nontraditional religious minorities were fiscate literature from the group. harassed, attacked, and subjected to baseless Georgian nongovernmental organizations charges during the run up to the election. The said that the attacks were intended to distract police and other authorities actively partici- public attention from the government’s fail- 294 GEORGIA

ure to meet its social obligations, including including their release. For the second year months-long arrears in the payment of wages running, Georgia flouted the committee’s and pensions. recommendation, and at the time of this Prisoners in the Republican Prison hos- writing, two of the defendants whose release pital, and at Ortachal and other corrective was recommended, Petre Gelbakhiani and labor colonies, went on hunger strikes in Irakli Dokvadze, remained imprisoned. Re- February and March to demand the release of peal of legal reforms in May and July 1999 political prisoners and a government reevalu- underscored the government’s lack of com- ation of the ouster of former President Zviad mitment to due process guarantees. This was Gamsakhurdia. In late September, twelve especially troubling as it undermined the long prisoners escaped from the hospital, among term development of legal institutions ca- them Loti Kobalya and Guram Absandze. pable of peacefully resolving grievances in- Absandze had been one of the defendants in volving Georgia’s multiethnic and diverse the highly publicized ongoing trial of fourteen religious communities, while eroding demo- individuals accused of participation in the cratic control and accountability for the ac- February 1998 assassination attempt on Presi- tions of the police and other security forces. dent Shevardnadze. Human Rights Watch The minister of justice resigned in early monitored the trial, noting numerous com- October, shortly after the high profile prison plaints from defendants regarding lack of escapes, and a new minister, Mikhael access to lawyers and other irregularities in Saakashvili, assumed office. Saakashvili stated the pretrial period. that he would put renewed focus on reform of President Shevardnadze was quoted on the court system and of the procuracy. Free- national television as stating that the escapes dom of the press suffered several blows, as indicated that Georgia had acted prematurely the government attempted to stifle increasing when it transferred some of its detention and public criticism of widespread corruption postconviction prison facilities from the and police brutality. For over a year, Akaki Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry Gogichaishvili, investigative reporter and of Justice. The transfer was an important producer of “60 Minutes,” was subjected to commitment made to the Council of Europe threats and harassment by unknown indi- as a condition of Georgia’s accession in April viduals. The Sunday evening television pro- 1999. Some detention facilities, notably lock- gram, which was among the highest rated in ups located inside police stations, remained the nation, systematically investigated cor- under the interior ministry, and reports of ruption among senior government officials. torture and abuse in these facilities continued The harassment campaign came to a head in unabated, including reports of the use of May, after Gogichaishvili reported receiving electric shock torture in the Tbilisi Main death threats from the deputy prosecutor Police Department. Reports of deaths in general. Meanwhile, the only independent custody included that of Tbilisi resident Davit television station in the autonomous region of Vashakmadze, who died after being severely Adjara, TV-25, located in Batumi, was sub- beaten by members of a Tbilisi-based police ject to a forced sale in mid-February after it unit. He and a companion were brutally began to increase its local news coverage. beaten shortly after being stopped for a traffic Owners claimed that the forced sale came at violation on the evening of November 13, the behest of individuals linked to strongman 1999. Aslan Abashidze, who held the title of presi- In May 1998, the U.N. Human Rights dent of the Adjar Supreme Soviet and ruled Committee, after a thorough investigation, the region. found that four individuals, supporters of former President Gamsakhurdia, had been Defending Human Rights tortured and denied fair trials, and ruled that An innovative project adopted in 1998 they were entitled to an effective remedy, by the Tbilisi City Council, the City Lawyer GEORGIA 295 program, was shut down in March by the Organization for Security and Ministry of Internal Affairs. The project, Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) designed and administered in cooperation Observers from the OSCE continued to with nongovernmental organizations, had monitor portions of the Georgian border stationed lawyers hired by the city in police affected by the conflict in Chechnya. The stations to provide twenty-four-hour-a-day international community expressed concern legal consultations free of charge to those regarding spillover of the conflict into Geor- detained in police lockups in the metropolitan gia. area. Council of Europe The Role of the International In May, members of the Council of Community Europe monitoring committee visited Tbilisi to assess Georgia’s progress in meeting con- United Nations ditions stipulated when it joined the organi- In July, the U.N. Security Council ex- zation in April 1999. tended the mandate of the U.N. Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) until Janu- European Union ary 31, 2001. The U.N.-led peace process, In early September, members of a visit- intended to achieve a negotiated political ing E.U. parliamentary delegation, much to solution to the festering conflict in the their credit, issued an unequivocal and timely breakaway region of Abkhazia, achieved no public statement urging religious tolerance tangible solution. In July, UNOMIG re- and condemning violent attacks on journal- ported an increase in violent incidents related ists, nongovernmental organizations, and re- to the activities of organized crime on both ligious minorities. In early October, the Co- sides, which it said limited the activities of operation Council between the E.U. and humanitarian organizations. It urged the par- Georgia recommended further work by the ties to demonstrate the political will to engage Georgian government to ensure citizens an in intensified negotiations on the issues of effective and impartial judicial system that Abkhazia’s status, the right of return of would also ensure basic individual freedoms, refugees, and on security and economic reha- including religious freedom. The council also bilitation. urged Georgia to pursue more actively reso- In August, a prominent member of the lution of its internal conflicts. Abkhaz opposition, Zurab Achba, was as- sassinated by unknown individuals in United States Sukhumi. Achba had worked as consultant to The United States and United Kingdom the joint human rights office maintained by embassies in Tbilisi issued a joint public UNOMIG and the OSCE. The assassination statement on September 15 condemning at- was linked by some to those opposed to the tacks on religious minorities, but the state- increasingly organized and vocal opposition ment was shamefully late. Despite violent to Abkhaz leader Vladislav Ardzinba. incidents throughout the year that gave ample Meanwhile, in June, the U.N. Commit- early warning of the escalation of violence, as tee on the Rights of the Child, reviewing well as calls by Georgian nongovernmental Georgia’s initial report, expressed concern organizations, the statement was issued only regarding the large number of children living after a large scale violent attack occurred on and working on the streets, recommended September 8. The reluctance of the U.S. and that Georgia establish a code of standards to U.K. governments to issue public statements ensure adequate care and protection for insti- even as human rights and economic condi- tutionalized children, and noted the absence tions in Georgia deteriorated appeared indica- of adequate legislation on juvenile justice. tive of the U.S. and European focus on secur- ing and maintaining agreements on transpor- 296 GEORGIA/GREECE

tation routes through Georgia for oil and gas Municipal councils continued to issue from the Caspian Sea region. orders for the eviction of Roma communities. In October 1999, the Rio council voted to Relevant Human Rights Watch evict all Roma for alleged criminality, poor Reports: hygiene, and trespassing. A December 1999 Backtracking on Reform: Amendments Un- meeting spearheaded by rights groups re- dermine Access to Justice, 10/00 sulted in a halt to evictions until prefecture authorities could provide satisfactory alter- native housing. In May 2000, the municipal council in Nea Kios decided to evict all Roma GREECE in the area. On May 25, armed police raided local Roma settlements and ill-treated resi- Human Rights Developments dents, including the beatings of two teenage Discrimination against Roma in Greece boys and the denial of medical treatment to took center stage in 2000 as Roma rights were their ill father. The family, along with three considered in a special session at the United nephews and an ailing elderly Roma woman, Nations and in European institutions. Ha- was accused of “stealing electricity” and rassment and discrimination against ethnic detained. The detainees were not informed of and religious minorities remained issues of their rights or permitted to make phone calls, concern as the government’s plan to remove and were denied food and blankets offered by the bearer’s religion from state-issued iden- family members. The ombudsman lodged a tity cards focused public attention on en- complaint with municipal authorities. trenched intolerance of religious minorities. Human rights activists and politicians Criminal prosecutions of journalists contin- were denied access to Nea Kios on June 8 by ued under Greece’s draconian libel laws. “citizen brigades” that blocked the streets in Greece’s Policy Framework for Roma the presence of police officers and harassed failed to meet most of its objectives, according journalist Panos Lambrou of Epochi. Subse- to a 2000 implementation review by the quently, non-Roma citizens torched a Roma government. Illegal evictions and police abuse hut and shot a Roma youth. Protests by rights against Roma continued unabated. Citing groups led to a June 16 Ministry of Justice police raids on settlements near Athens, rights decision to investigate allegations of police groups charged the government with “cleans- abuse in Nea Kios. The police raided a Roma ing” greater Athens of Roma to build sports settlement by the River Gallikos in Salonica facilities for the 2004 Olympics. In July, a on July 6 in search of drugs, weapons, and municipal bulldozer, accompanied by the criminal suspects. One hundred Roma were mayor and police, demolished numerous Roma detained but no drugs or weapons were found. huts in the Athens Aspropyrgos suburb. The Prefecture of Salonica denounced the Greek and Albanian Roma families in the racist character of the police operation. In settlement—situated on a garbage dump— May and August respectively, the councils of were ordered to leave within three days. The Nea Tiryntha and Midea called for the Greek ombudsman, tasked with investigating eviction of all Roma from their municipalities. complaints of human rights abuses, con- Police continued to enjoy impunity for tacted Aspropyrgos Municipality question- abuses targeting Roma. In March, a Salonica ing the eviction’s legality, but his communi- court dismissed charges against three police cation was ignored. The eviction of Roma tent officers for the April 1998 killing of Angelos dwellers in the upper part of the dump Celal, holding that the officers acted in legiti- occurred prior to the Aspropyrgos operation mate self-defense. Celal was unarmed and when the mayor of Ano Liosia offered Roma shot from behind. Human rights groups lodged families 100,000 drachmas (U.S.$266) to an unsuccessful appeal requesting that the leave and then leveled their huts. prosecutor challenge the court’s ruling. GREECE 297

In May 2000, the government decided to government. The ombudsman revealed that remove from state-issued identity cards the Zeybek’s “inspection” was conducted by the bearer’s religion, a labeling that has facilitated National Information Service (EYP), Greece’s the discriminatory treatment of religious mi- intelligence agency. A letter from the EYP norities. Human rights groups hailed the de- stated that Zeybek’s inspection was con- cision as a step toward eliminating entrenched ducted within the EYP’s “competence....in religious discrimination. In October 1999, a intelligence gathering on matters of national mob led by the mayor attempted to halt security.” Rights groups, including the Inter- construction of a Jehovah’s Witness building national Helsinki Federation, lodged protests in Kasandra. Two journalists were beaten, with the government. and representatives of the ombudsman’s of- fice and the Jehovah’s Witnesses were ha- The Role of the International rassed. Subsequently, the mayor was in- Community dicted for incitement to religious hatred but was never arrested or tried. Mehmet Emin United Nations Aga, mufti of Xanthi, was convicted in May The Committee on the Elimination of for “pretense of authority” for assuming the All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) leadership of a minority Muslim group, de- held a thematic discussion on Roma in August spite a December 1999 European Court of 2000 and released a statement that included Human Rights decision against Greece in a information from Greek nongovernmental similar case (see below). organizations that Roma communities near In November 1999, two journalists for Athens were being evicted to clear land for Eleftherotypia were indicted for defamation facilities for the 2004 Olympics. under Greece’s libel laws for allegations that the Lesvos police were associated with smug- Organization for Security and glers. An Athens court convicted Dimitris Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Rizos, publisher of Adesmeftos Typos, in A March 2000 report by the OSCE high December 1999, on a charge of aggravated commissioner on national minorities on the defamation of the publisher of another news- situation of Roma and Sinti criticized Greece paper with the same name. In March 2000, a for evictions of Roma, noting that lack of renowned violinist and a composer were political will at the highest levels of govern- given prison sentences for defamation based ment resulted in inadequate Roma policy on statements made during newspaper inter- implementation by mid-level policy makers views. and at the local level.

Defending Human Rights Council of Europe Most human rights groups operated The European Commission Against without interference, although incidents of Racism and Intolerance’s (ECRI) “Second harassment were reported. Aysel Zeybek, a Report on Greece (June 2000)” stated that stateless woman member of Greece’s Turk- problems of exclusion and discrimination ish minority and human rights activist asso- against Roma, immigrants, and Muslims per- ciated with the Greek Helsinki Monitor, sisted; it encouraged the government to raise complained to the ombudsman detailing ha- public awareness of the “multicultural real- rassment she suffered at the Greek-Turkish ity” of Greek society. Rejecting the recom- border in December 1999 when she was the mendation, the government denied that Greece only person on her bus targeted for an intru- is a multicultural society. sive search and verbally harassed about her In December 1999, the European Court association with rights groups. At the time, of Human Rights found Greece in violation of Zeybek, a resident of Greece, possessed religious freedom for convicting the mufti of official travel documents issued by the Greek Komotini of “pretense to authority.” The 298 GREECE/HUNGARY

court stated that punishing the religious leader by the Zamoly municipal government. The of a group that willingly followed him was families were evicted from temporary incompatible with the religious pluralism accomodation in the local cultural center after required by a democratic society. six months, and although new homes were The Greek government had not, as of built for them in 2000, the Roma said they did this writing, published the European Com- not occupy them because they feared racially mittee on the Prevention of Torture report on motivated attacks. In August, Roma repre- its 1999 visit. sentatives from Ozd traveled to Strasbourg to consult with the Zamoly Roma. The Ozd United States Roma said that fifteen families from that The U. S. State Department’s Country region wanted to emigrate as well due to Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1999 persecution suffered in Hungary. On August noted persistent discrimination against immi- 9, 2000, the European Roma Rights Center grants, religious and ethnic minorities, and (ERRC) sent a letter to Hungarian prime Roma, but in an apparent contradiction as- minister Viktor Orban protesting a spate of serted that “most” minorities are “integrated discriminatory Roma evictions in Ozd. The fully into society.” ERRC also expressed concern that new legis- lation, in effect since May 2000, permitting a notary public to order evictions expands the power of local officials to remove Roma from HUNGARY their homes. Although judicial review of a notary’s eviction order is possible, injunctive Rampant discrimination was at the fore- relief is not provided by the new law, leaving front of human rights concerns as a group of families homeless while they challenge evic- Hungarian Roma took grievances to the Euro- tions. pean Court of Human Rights, drawing atten- In January 2000, the government estab- tion to the government’s failure to address lished the Office for Immigration and Natural- discrimination against Roma as required by ization (OIN)—a central authority for asy- its European Union accession agreement. lum and immigration matters. The OIN began The ill-treatment and detention of refugees drafting substantial amendments to the laws remained a serious concern. Progress on dealing with asylum and aliens in June but did religious freedom suffered a setback as Hun- not invite consultation with nongovernmen- gary promulgated a tax law that threatened to tal organizations. In December 1999, the marginalize further minority religious groups. U.N. high commissioner for refugees warned third countries against the indiscriminate re- Human Rights Developments turn of asylum seekers who had previously Most of the objectives in the Hungarian transited Hungary, noting deficiencies in the government’s medium term plan for Roma Hungarian asylum system—in particular, rights were unmet at the end of 2000, resulting poor conditions of detention for asylum seek- in continued discrimination in employment, ers. Hungary continued to deny refugee sta- housing, and education and police abuse of tus to conscientious objectors from the Fed- Hungarian Roma. In July 2000, a group of eral Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) who fled Roma families from Zamoly traveled to to Hungary to avoid military service in the Strasbourg seeking political asylum in France. Kosovo conflict. Many of the conscientious The Roma also lodged a complaint with the objectors were granted “authorization to re- European Court of Human Rights seeking main” status, valid for one year and renewable compensation for human rights abuses suf- annually. Refugee advocates claimed that fered in Hungary, including persecution and such status created a high degree of insecurity discrimination. The complaint charged that in the group and prohibited them from full families’ homes had been destroyed illegally integration into Hungarian society. In a March HUNGARY 299

2000 judgment on an appeal lodged by a FRY Organization for Security and conscientious objector whose application for Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) asylum was rejected, the Budapest Central In March 2000, the OSCE high commis- Court ruled that OIN’s decision was not sioner on national minorities issued a report “well-founded” and ordered the authority to on the situation of Roma and Sinti in the recommence an assessment of the individual’s OSCE area. In addition to over-representation claim. The court held that OIN did not con- in prisons and police abuse of Roma in Hun- sider the evidence that the claimant could face gary, the report highlighted the high rate of persecution based on his political opinions Roma unemployment, overt discrimination and conscientious objector status if returned in employment advertisements, and to FRY. In August 2000, the OIN denied the Hungary’s failure to provide employment claimant refugee status once again, but he was discrimination victims with an effective rem- granted authorization to remain. edy. A May 2000 amendment to Hungary’s tax laws threatened to newly marginalize Council of Europe minority religions. The amendment confirmed The European Commission on Racism sales tax exemption only for Hungary’s six and Intolerance’s (ECRI) “Second Annual “historical” churches and for nonprofit orga- Report on Hungary (June 2000)” expressed nizations, thus preventing 98 percent of reg- concern over continuing discrimination and istered churches (for example, Methodists, police abuse of Roma and immigrants. The Adventists, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and report stated, among other things, that a large all Eastern religions) from reclaiming sales tax, proportion of Roma children are tracked into although most of them sponsor charitable “corrective” (i.e., remedial) schools, many programs of “public utility.” Human rights teachers discriminate against Roma, and teach- groups charged that the law signaled an in- ing materials are prejudiced against Roma. creasing tendency in Hungary to privilege certain religions over others. European Union In October 1999, the European Com- Defending Human Rights mission proposed that updated agreements Most human rights groups in Hungary for candidate countries seeking to join the operated without interference. Recognizing European Union, including Hungary, make the disproportionate representation of Roma the improvement of the situation of Roma a in Hungarian prisons, the Hungarian Helsinki short and medium term priority. A December Committee implemented a 2000 pilot project 1999 European Union Enlargement Briefing designed to assess the degree and scope of reiterated that Roma in many candidate coun- discrimination against Roma in criminal sen- tries, including Hungary, continued to face tencing and began a prison monitoring pro- deep-rooted prejudice and focused on E.U. gram in association with the National Prison support for candidate countries’ action plans Administration. for integrating Roma into society. Hungary was co-chair of the Southeast The Role of the International European Stability Pact’s Working Table on Community Democratization and Human Rights from January-June 2000 during which time the United Nations working table focused on, among other things, In May, U.N. secretary-general Kofi projects promoting the human rights of na- Annan presented Hungary with the Franklin tional minorities, refugee return, and women’s Delano Roosevelt International Disability rights. Award for legislative work to raise awareness and promote access for the disabled “from a United States human rights perspective.” The United States State Department’s 300 HUNGARY/KAZAKHSTAN

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and leader of the Republican National People’s for 1999 noted that Roma and foreigners in Party (RNPK) after his dismissal in 1997— Hungary were subject to discrimination and with illegal weapons possession, and in April, violent police abuse. The report detailed the tax police filed new charges against him. criticisms by nongovernmental organizations In May, Kazhegeldin’s press secretary Igor that conditions of detention for asylum seek- Poberezhskii was stabbed by an unknown ers were “inhuman.” assailant outside of his Moscow apartment. In July, just after details of the international investigation into payments allegedly made to both President Nazarbaev and his former KAZAKHSTAN prime minister by foreign oil companies emerged, Italian police acting on a request Human Rights Developments filed by Kazakhstan with Interpol briefly Harassment of opposition political ac- detained Kazhegeldin at a Rome airport. tivists continued in 2000, after 1999 elections Kazhegeldin’s former bodyguards, Satzhan that were far from free and fair secured an- Ibraev and Petr Afanasenko, were each sen- other term in office for President Nursultan tenced to three and one-half years in prison on Nazarbaev and a compliant Parliament. Sup- weapons charges, a move widely seen as pression of independent and political retribution for their connection to opposition-affiliated media remained routine Kazhegeldin. in 2000, a year when massive corruption Other members of the opposition were allegations against President Nazarbaev and also affected, including political scientist and other high government officials came to light. RNPK member Nurbulat Masanov, who in Despite President Nazarbaev’s pledge March awoke to find that he had been sealed at the November 1999 Operation for Security into his apartment in advance of a March 30 and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Summit demonstration. The apartments of RNPK in Istanbul to implement the organization’s leader Amirzhan Kosanov and Seidakhmet post-election recommendations, the govern- Kuttykadam, leader of the Orleu movement, ment has yet to publish full election results of were also sealed. On September 14, police the October 1999 primary vote or to account detained Karishal Asanov, a writer, long-time for the many complaints of violations sub- dissident, and recipient of the Human Rights mitted to electoral commissions. The parlia- Watch Hellman-Hammett prize, in his home ment in June granted Nazarbaev lifetime privi- and held him for three hours. Asanov, who leges after his second term in office ends in had recently published an article criticizing 2006 (though he has indicated that he may run Kazakhstan’s president, was ordered to ap- again), including the right to address parlia- pear for questioning on September 20. ment and state institutions and the public at In July, the Supreme Court upheld the will. administrative regulations mandating, on The government continued to use legal grounds of public security, that police had the action to harass opposition figures. Madel right to attend any and all meetings of nongov- Ismailov, a leader of the Worker’s Opposi- ernmental organizations, without providing tion Party who served a year in prison on for any judicial or other review of these police charges of “offending the honor and dignity of actions. This ruling was sure to have a chilling the President,” was sentenced in April to effect on freedom of assembly, already re- fifteen days of administrative detention for stricted by Kazakh authorities, who contin- his participation in a nonviolent demonstra- ued to fine members of the pensioners’ tion in January. movement Pokolenie (Generation) for their In February, the government charged monthly public demonstrations. The Almaty former prime minister Akezhan city government granted permission for op- Kazhegeldin—Nazarbaev’s one-time rival position forces to hold a demonstration on KAZAKHSTAN 301

March 30, although attacks on the homes of tigating the paper on charges of “impugning the rally’s leaders suggested state-sponsored the honor and dignity of the President” on interference. grounds that it published a translation of an The independent print and broadcast article on the investigation of illegal payments media continued to face intense government by oil companies to high government offi- repression. The government continued to use cials, including the president, from U.S.-based libel suits, confiscation of print runs and Fortune magazine. Vremia P.O.’s printing equipment, and pressure against printing house refused to publish the paper after it ran houses and distribution agencies to harass an article critical of the prime minister in media it found too critical. President August. Kazakhstan continued to censor the Nazarbaev threatened several times over the Internet, blocking access to the newsite course of the year to investigate unspecified eurasia.ru from within the country in Septem- media outlets for supposed antistate crimes. ber and October. Opposition-affiliated journalists also ran the Kazakh NGOs and international organi- risk of physical assault: Lira Baisetova, editor zations such as the OSCE have helped focus of the opposition newspaper government attention on Kazakhstan’s hor- Respublika-2000, was beaten by an uniden- rendous prison conditions. Inmates in three tified man outside her apartment on Septem- separate penal institutions this year carried ber 15 who warned her against continuing her out mass self-mutilations to protest condi- activities. The government blocked broad- tions; the largest incident, in Kostanai Prov- cast of Russian television programs for sev- ince in June, involved forty-four prisoners. eral days in November 1999, after one pro- The government made public statements de- gram broadcast news that Swiss bank ac- ploring the widespread use of torture in counts linked to President Nazarbaev had criminal investigations and police brutality, been frozen. After reporting on the sealing of but declined to take action against perpetra- opposition leaders’ doors in late March, tors. In a case documented by the Kazakhstan editor-in-chief Tatiana Deltsova of the news International Bureau for Human Rights and program on Almaty’s private T.V. Channel the Rule of Law (KIBHRRL), documentary 31 was dismissed from her job. In May, court filmmaker Dmitrii Piskunov was left in a executors enforcing a libel judgment seized coma after a beating by a KNB officer after the property of the newspaper Nachnem s a traffic dispute in July; while charges have Ponedel’nika (Let’s Begin on Monday), forc- been filed, the investigation has languished. ing it to fold; the papers’ editors began a new Government intolerance for non-tradi- venture, Do I Posle Ponedel’nika (Before and tional religious groups was evidenced by the After Monday). In June, unidentified men seizure in June of religious literature from a seized the entire print run of that paper and group of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the barring forced one of its employees to set it on fire. of a protestant missionary from the United Two newspapers, the Azamat-Times (Citi- States from entering the country. Tensions zen Times) and Karagandinskii Vestnik surfaced in Kazakhstan’s Islamic community (Karaganda Gazette), were also the subject of as well, leading to the sudden resignation in libel suits. After its printing press refused June of Kazakhstan’s chief mufti, the head of under government pressure to print the fifti- the Spiritual Directorate of Kazakhstan’s eth issue of the Kazakh-language opposition Muslims. In September, Kazakhstan’s For- paper SolDat (the name is a play on that of the eign Ministry reportedly ordered all young banned Dat, in Kazakh, “let me speak”, which men from Kazakhstan studying at religious was closed last year) in July, the issue was institutions in Islamic countries to return. produced across the border in Russia, but then detained at the border for several days. Defending Human Rights The State Security Committee (KNB, for- In November 1999, fire swept through merly the KGB) had reportedly begun inves- the offices of the Kazakhstan International 302 KAZAKHSTAN/KYRGYZSTAN

Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law U.S.-Kazakhstan Joint Commission, chaired in an as yet unexplained incident. No inci- by Vice President Al Gore, reportedly ob- dents of harassment of human rights monitors tained President Nazarbaev’s commitment to in Kazakhstan were reported this year. work closely with the OSCE on implement- ing democratic reform. Visits to Kazakhstan The Role of the International by the head of the CIA, the head of the FBI, Community NATO commander Wesley Clark, and Secre- tary of State Madeleine Albright in the spring Organization for Security and came as the U.S. struggled to preserve its Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) influence in the region. The harshest U.S. In January, the OSCE Office for Demo- criticism came not on human rights issues, but cratic Institutions and Human Rights Elec- in response to the illegal sale of fighter aircraft tion Observation Mission issued its final to North Korea in 1999 involving high Kazakh report on parliamentary elections held in government officials. The U.S. proffered October 1999, outlining seventeen recom- U.S.$3 million in additional assistance for mendations. The OSCE center in Almaty counterterrorism, as well as a U.S. Trade and attempted to monitor whether these recom- Development Agency (TDA) grant of U.S. mendations, including changes to the election $600,000 for a survey of natural gas re- law, have been implemented. To that end, on sources. September 2 the center sponsored the first in a series of round table discussions on the question of elections, which included repre- sentatives of the government and KYRGYZSTAN pro-government groups as well as opposition political parties and nongovernmental organi- Human Rights Developments zations. In 2000, President Askar Akaev’s ac- tions shattered the illusion of Kyrgyzstan as European Union an “island of democracy” in a repressive President of the European Commission region. Armed clashes on the country’s Romano Prodi and External Relations Com- border, manipulated polls for parliament and missioner Chris Patten met with President for the presidency, and restrictions on free Nazarbaev in June and reportedly stressed speech, press and association, minority rights, the need for further progress towards democ- and religion fostered an ongoing crisis, with racy; a textile agreement was also signed. In dire implications for human rights. July, the E.U./Kazakhstan council met for the The government of Kyrgyzstan at- second time, one year after the Partnership tempted to limit access to the southern border and Cooperation Agreement came into force. with Tajikistan after armed clashes between Their public statement indicated that the fighters of the Islamic Movement of Cooperation Council discussed political and Uzbekistan (IMU) and Kyrgyz government human rights issues. troops resumed in August. Reports emerged of civilian deaths from mines laid by the Council of Europe Kyrgyz military in mountainous border ar- The Political Affairs Committee of the eas; over one thousand civilians had been Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of relocated from the conflict zone at the time of Europe (PACE) continued to consider writing, in what was claimed to be a voluntary Kazakhstan’s application for observer status process. The IMU, whose stated goal was to this year. move into Uzbek territory from its reported redoubts in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, once United States again took several sets of hostages, some of The December 1999 meeting of the whom were released and some of whom KYRGYZSTAN 303 escaped. Kyrgyz warplanes launched bomb- victed in August of plotting an attempt on ing raids on border areas in Kyrgyzstan and President Akaev’s life and overthrow of the Tajikistan; thirty Kyrgyz were officially ac- state’s constitutional system. Turgunaliev knowledged to have been killed. and six of his eight codefendants were sen- In elections to the parliament in Febru- tenced to from sixteen to seventeen years in ary and March 2000, and for president on prison. The seventh man charged in the case, October 29, 2000, the government blatantly an officer of the MNB (Ministry for National violated citizens’ rights. Though fifteen “par- Security, formerly the KGB) and the state’s ties” participated in the parliamentary vote, lone witness, was given a suspended sentence courts barred four, including the three most and immediately released. popular opposition parties—El-Bei Bechora The government introduced mandatory (the People’s Party) and Ar-Namys (Dig- Kyrgyz language testing for potential presi- nity), and later the Democratic Movement of dential candidates in 2000. Seven potential Kyrgyzstan—from advancing a slate of can- opposition candidates were excluded under didates, based on two provisions of the elec- this provision. Citizens wishing to gather toral law hastily passed in 1999. The govern- signatures to support opposition candidates ment also erected significant barriers for indi- faced threats and harassment, including dis- vidual opposition candidates to register. In- missal from jobs. According to local human ternational and domestic observers noted rights groups, provincial governors appointed widespread instances of fraud. by the president compelled teachers and The boldness with which the Kyrgyz other civil servants to support Akaev. government attacked Akaev’s potential presi- Authorities dealt harshly with demon- dential rivals, including former vice president strators, casting a chill over the rights to Gen. Felix Kulov, shocked even the most freedom of speech and association. In March, jaded observers. Kulov was tried by a closed police beat demonstrators in Kulov’s home military tribunal after being arrested in March base of Kara-Bura, injuring several. and charged with abusing his official powers Independent newspapers’ vigorous re- when he served as minister of national secu- porting during the election spawned an in- rity. Although the tribunal acquitted him of tense government backlash. On January 13, any wrongdoing in August, state prosecutors the Supreme Court upheld a court decision appealed the verdict, and a retrial was ordered finding the popular private newspaper Res in September. A Supreme Court judge, Publica guilty of defaming a government Akynbek Tilebaliev, who was said to have official; under threat of closure, the paper influenced the first court’s decision to acquit, paid the damage award, but government ha- was allegedly forced by the government to rassment continued. In August, the Ministry resign. for State Security questioned three members In May, a Bishkek court convicted of the editorial board of the paper Delo No Danier Usenov, then leader of the Kyrgyz (Case Number) in an investigation of alleged People’s Party (El-Bei Bechora), and another “disclosure of state secrets,” following an challenger for the presidency on a article on the case against Felix Kulov. KNB four-year-old assault charge in which the officials searched the homes of Delo No plaintiff had withdrawn his original com- journalists in September. A Bishkek court plaint, sentencing him to two years of proba- began to consider the libel suit brought by tion. Kyrgyz law permanently bars persons parliamentary deputy and former Kyrgyz with criminal convictions from standing for Communist Party First Secretary Turdakun election to public office. Usubaliev against the independent newspa- Long-time political activist, human per Asaba (the Standard) in late August. rights defender, and founder of Kyrgyzstan’s Tellingly, Usubaliev was seeking to have nongovernmental Guild of Prisoners of Con- publication suspended during the trial, as well science Topchubek Turgunaliev was con- as 50 million soms (approximately U.S. $1.06 304 KYRGYZSTAN

million) in damages. The paper’s owner, The Kyrgyz Committee for Human People’s Party leader Melis Eshimkanov, Rights (KCHR) and its chairman, Ramazan was challenging President Akaev in the Octo- Dyryldaev, faced increasingly serious ha- ber 29 election. Journalist Moldosaly rassment, as state officials attempted to Ibraimov, from the southern region of confiscate the group’s property, after court Jalal-Abad, was jailed for five weeks after decisions revoked its registration. Facing being charged with libel for an article he wrote arrest on criminal charges in late July, about corruption during the run-up to the Dyryldaev, his son, and one other KCHR parliamentary elections. Media restrictions activist fled the country, and they remained also raised minority rights questions when abroad as of this writing. the government attempted to strip the private station Osh TV, which broadcasts in Uzbek, The Role of the International of its broadcasting license. In the face of local Community and international protests, the State Commis- sion for Radio Frequencies postponed a de- United Nations cision until the end of the year. The U.N. Resident Coordinator Office The government of Kyrgyzstan also in Bishkek monitored the situation of inter- engaged in Internet censorship, shutting down nally displaced persons (IDPs) in connection the independent news site “Politika KG” with the Uzbek rebel incursion in August. from late August until October 29, the date of Kyrgyzstan submitted several reports the presidential elections. to United Nations treaty bodies in 1999-2000. Kyrgyzstan intensified repression The United Nations Committee on the Rights against the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir of the Child concluded that the government (Party of Liberation), mainly active in the was not making the necessary effort to com- southern Osh province, arresting tens of the ply with the treaty’s provisions in May. In group’s followers and sentencing them to July, the Human Rights Committee reviewed prison terms on charges of inciting religious and found lacking Kyrgyz compliance with and racial hatred. its obligations under the International Cov- Kyrgyzstan flouted its obligations as a enant on Civil and Political Rights. signatory to the 1951 refugee convention and the Convention against Torture and Other Organization forSecurity and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Punishment in April by its forcible deporta- The OSCE announced at the end of tion of Jeli Turdi, an ethnic Uighur, back to the January that it would send a full observer People’s Republic of China, where he risked mission to the parliamentary elections in mistreatment including torture. February, shortly before the Kyrgyz govern- ment disallowed the participation of several Defending Human Rights opposition candidates. The final report of In March, prosecutors formally warned that mission thoroughly summarized election NGO Coalition for Democracy leader, Toletan abuses and issued a series of recommenda- Ismailova, Lidia Fomova of the Association tions on improving the electoral process, but for Social Protection of the Population, and the OSCE did not insist that they be imple- other NGO leaders that they faced arrest mented as a condition to its observing the under Criminal Code article 233, which pun- October presidential poll. It announced on ishes “destabilizing the social order,” for their September 14, that it would do so, while human rights activities. In May the Ministry issuing several statements critical of the arrest of Justice refused to register the nongovern- and harassment of opposition figures. In the mental Guild of Prisoners of Conscience, aftermath of the parliamentary poll, the OSCE stating that the Kyrgyz constitution pre- pressed the government to hold roundtable cluded any arrests on political grounds. discussions with the opposition, which was KYRGYZSTAN/MACEDONIA 305 largely excluded from the new parliament, but the government has refused to do so. In April, MACEDONIA the OSCE opened a field office in the southern city of Osh. Human Rights Developments Although the international community European Union continued to view Macedonia as a model of The European Union held the second stability and democracy in the region, its meeting of its Cooperation Council with human rights record remained patchy in 2000, Kyrgyzstan in July, which, though it noted with police brutality and the treatment of the importance of democratic reforms, “con- minorities continuing areas of concern. Events cluded that cooperation in 2000/2001 should leading up to the election of Macedonia’s focus in particular on the improvement of the second president at the end of 1999 typified business climate.” After the August incur- the country’s mixed record: after a generally sion, the E.U. delegation to the OSCE Perma- well-conducted first round of elections on nent Council issued a statement recognizing October 31, 1999, the November 14, 1999, that “the strengthening of civil societies, run-off was flawed by serious irregularities in progress in democratization and the rule of some districts. When the state electoral com- law as well as the improvement of economic mission ordered a new round of voting on and social conditions are essential in the fight December 5 in 230 polling stations, irregulari- against extremism and fundamentalism.” ties were again reported, marring the victory of Boris Trajkovski, the candidate of the United States ruling coalition, who took office on December During her April visit to the region, 15. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright criti- The killing of three police officers out- cized the Kyrgyz retreat from democracy and side the Albanian village of Aracinovo on extracted a promise from President Akaev to January 11, 2000, sparked some of most follow OSCE recommendations for improve- serious cases of police abuse in Macedonia ments in advance of October’s presidential since the riots and subsequent crackdown in election; Albright then extended U.S.$3 mil- Gostivar and Tetovo in 1997. During raids on lion in supplementary counterterrorism as- Aracinovo by police units during the three sistance. The administration requested $37 days after the killing, Aracinovo’s ethnic million in assistance for Kyrgyztan in 2001, Albanian residents reported widespread beat- an $8 million increase over estimated 2000 ings at the hands of police, as well the destruc- expenditures, and prefaced its January 2000 tion of property and the use of tear gas. One request by stating that “Kyrgyzstan’s com- of the three suspects arrested in connection mitment to democratization and economic with the murders of the police died in police reform stand out as an example of the suc- custody, and at the time of this writing, the cesses that can be achieved in Central Asia.” autopsy report had yet to be released. Nine After first inviting Kyrgyzstan to the June other suspects were arrested and beaten in conference of democratic states in Warsaw, in custody and some claim to have been forced May the convening states, including the United to sign confessions. At time of this writing, States, suggested to Kyrgyzstan that it would the murders of the police officer remained be best if its delegation did not make an unsolved. appearance. An investigation by the office of the ombudsman in Macedonia found that the police had used excessive force in Aracinovo and recommended an internal investigation. Although some families were compensated for damage to their property, the government did little to tackle police abuse in the wake of 306 MACEDONIA

the incident. The suspicious death in custody journalists obtain government-issued press of another ethnic Albanian man in a Skopje accreditation. The law remained pending. prison on May 14 did little to improve Free expression took a blow in June with confidence in policing among the Albanian reports of widespread confiscations of the community. In the three months following Tirana-based daily newspaper Bota Sot in the the Aracinovo killings, three police stations in towns of Tetovo and Gostivar, and a five-day predominantly ethnic Albanian areas were shut-down of its production by a local printer, attacked with explosives, although it was not ostensibly on technical grounds. Bota Sot was clear if the incidents were linked. generally critical of the government. Macedonia’s Roma community also In July, the government adopted legisla- suffered at the hands of the police during tion to resolve the long-standing question of 2000. On April 21, a married couple of Tetovo University, a private Albanian-lan- “Egyptian” ethnicity (Macedonia’s so-called guage institution that Macedonian authori- Egyptians consider themselves distinct from ties refused to accredit as an educational Roma) was reportedly beaten by police on institution. The passage of the law on educa- the road to Ohrid after a traffic stop. The tion on July 25 established a new multi- husband, a taxi driver, was arrested for lacking lingual tertiary institute offering training in necessary permits (which he later claimed he business, education, and public management. had presented), was allegedly beaten in cus- The internationally funded institution, in- tody and sentenced to eight days in jail. On tended as a replacement to Tetovo Univer- May 14, a sixteen-year-old Roma boy from sity, would allow Albanians to study in their Negotino Municipality was taken to the own language, although a proficiency test in police station there, where he was reportedly Macedonian would be required before their beaten and forced to confess to various crimes. diplomas were officially recognized. Despite A further incident occurred on May 26 in the receiving the backing of the Albanian party in village of Stip, when six Roma men illegally the ruling government coalition, the new insti- removing firewood from a forest in a nearby tute did not receive unequivocal support from village were apprehended by a group of police the country’s ethnic Albanian population, and village residents. The six men were beaten many of whom wanted nothing less than the before being taken to a nearby police station recognition of Tetovo University itself. where the beatings continued. The difficulties The overall standard of September’s faced by Roma in Macedonia were further municipal elections in Macedonia was lower highlighted in June when five Roma houses in than that of the 1999 presidential elections, the village of Stip caught fire under suspicious with the vote in both rounds marred by circumstances. One of the houses was com- irregularities including violence and intimida- pletely destroyed and the other four badly tion in some districts. International monitors damaged. Police suspected arson. Roma houses pointed to problems with the election law and in Stip has been the target of arson attacks in the fact that administrative measures were 1992. selectively applied to media critical of the A new draft law on information, intro- government. Fewer problems were observed duced by the Macedonian government on during the second round, although ballot boxes May 12, drew criticism from local journalists were destroyed in fourteen polling stations. and international press groups. Although Despite government promises to reform there was consensus on the need for a new law Macedonia’s overly exclusive 1992 citizen- to replace existing regulations from the com- ship law in line with Council of Europe munist era, free speech advocates were con- standards, the law remained unchanged. cerned that ethical standards for journalists Drafted at the time of its independence from were being transformed into legal provisions the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, regulated by the government. They were also Macedonia’s citizenship law never adequately concerned about the requirement that local resolved the status of the significant number MACEDONIA 307 of Yugoslav citizens who were long-term Tetovo University in July owed much to residents in Macedonia but who were neither efforts by the OSCE high commissioner on born in Macedonia nor ethnic Macedonian. minorities, who also issued a comprehensive Large numbers of ethnic Albanians, Turks, report in March on the difficulties faced by and Roma who knew no other home than Roma and Sinti in OSCE member states, Macedonia remained effectively stateless as including in Macedonia. a result of the law. Council of Europe Defending Human Rights On May 5, the Council of Europe’s There were no reports of government restric- Parliamentary Assembly decided to end its tions on the right to monitor by local human monitoring procedure for Macedonia. The rights organizations, such as the Helsinki decision followed a March report from its Committee for Human Rights in the Republic monitoring committee commending of Macedonia, or from visiting international Macedonia’s progress in meeting its member- human rights organizations. ship obligations and commitments. The re- port encouraged Macedonia to bring its citi- The Role of the International zenship law into line with the European Community Convention on Nationality.

United Nations European Union The U.N. Committee on the Rights of In March, the way was opened for the Child considered Macedonia’s initial re- negotiations between the European Union port on its compliance with the Convention and Macedonia on an Agreement on Stabili- on the Rights of the Child in January. Among zation and Association, offering the promise the committee’s recommendations to the of closer economic and political ties. The Macedonian authorities was a call to focus on upgrading in relations was symbolized by the improving school enrollment rates for minor- change of the E.U.’s office in Macedonia to a ity children, particularly Roma. The difficul- Permanent Delegation. During a June visit, ties faced by Roma in Macedonia were also E.U. External Relations Commissioner Chris noted at a special three-day session in August Patten noted Macedonia’s progress and indi- of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial cated that the agreement was likely to be Discrimination. concluded before the end of 2000. E.U. finan- cial assistance to Macedonia included 25 Organization for Security and million euro (approximately U.S. $30.8 mil- Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) lion) through the PHARE program and infra- The OSCE continued to pay close atten- structure support through the OBNOVA tion to events in Macedonia during 2000. In program. addition to the long-standing Spillover Moni- tor Mission to Skopje, set up in 1992 to United States monitor the Macedonian-Yugoslav border, U.S. policy continued to support the OSCE was also active in monitoring the Macedonia’s role in the NATO partnership presidential elections in October and Novem- for peace program and to emphasize its role ber 1999 and local elections in September in regional stability. The focus on security 2000 through its Office for Democratic Insti- cooperation was underscored by a visit from tutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Al- Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff though the first round of presidential elec- Gen. Henry H. Shelton in July and visits by tions was deemed acceptable, ODIHR’s elec- two teams of U.S. military experts in June. tion observation mission found irregularities That the U.S. remained reluctant to criticize in the second round, and in both rounds of the human rights abuses in Macedonia was re- local elections. The resolution of the status of flected in the overly positive State Depart- 308 MACEDONIA/ROMANIA

ment report on Macedonia in its annual re- modify the penal code. After the October view of human rights practices and its silence conference, ILGA released a statement urging over irregularities in the September municipal the repeal of article 200 as a precondition for elections. Romania’s E.U. accession. Roma continued to be subjected to eth- nic and racial discrimination. On March 12, 2000, the European Roma Rights Center ROMANIA (ERRC) lodged applications against Romania with the European Court of Human Rights Human Rights Developments regarding cases of violence and destruction of Romania strove to meet the require- property in Casinul Nou, 1990, and in Plaiesii ments for accession to the European Union, de Sus, 1991, which had been ultimately making slow but steady progress in human denied in Romanian courts in part because the rights. However, discrimination against Roma statute of limitations had expired before they continued, and many sought refuge outside could initiate final appeals, due to the slow- the country. Police brutality remained a ness of the court system. Police in both cases problem. Freedom of press and thought and failed to conduct on-site investigations, and in the right to a fair trial remained threatened. both cases the Romanian courts found that Fallout from the NATO-Yugoslav conflict, the offenses in which Roma were beaten and including restriction of access to shipping on their homes destroyed had been committed the Danube, created economic hardship in its “due to serious provocative acts of the vic- already shaky economy, driving some Roma- tims.” nians into the hands of traffickers and forced The number of inmates of Romanian labor abroad. The pattern of blaming or penitentiaries and police lockups who were in prosecuting the victims of crimes, particu- pretrial detention dropped in 2000 from one- larly Roma and trafficked women, continued. third in 1997 to one-fifth. Amnesty Interna- Minority religious groups continued to expe- tional documented several cases of the use of rience discrimination with limits placed on excessive force, some of them including mi- the licensing of groups and the building of nors, and also reported that Romanian law places of worship. currently allows police officers to use fire- Romania hosted the twenty-second an- arms in circumstances prohibited by interna- nual International Lesbian and Gay Associa- tional standards, such as allowing them to tion (ILGA) European Conference in Octo- shoot when apprehending a suspect. ber 2000. ACCEPT, the local organizing APADOR-CH, the Romanian Helsinki Com- NGO for ILGA’s conference, monitored mittee, received numerous complaints from progress in legislative efforts to decriminalize individuals claiming that they had been tor- same-sex relations. In June the lower house tured or ill-treated by the police. By law, such of Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, accusations were investigated by the Mili- repealed article 200, but article 201, proscrib- tary Prosecutor’s Office, which also decided ing “sexual perversions,” remained. At this whether an investigation was warranted, with writing, only the Chamber of Deputies has the burden of proof on the victim. voted to decriminalize gay sex; the upper Freedom of the press continued to be Senate has yet to vote the bill into law. On threatened under 1996 modifications to the August 31, the Romanian government passed penal code, which provided harsh sentences an ordinance on “Preventing and Punishing all for critical reporting on state bodies or state- forms of Discrimination,” which explicitly owned businesses. The Chamber of Deputies included sexual orientation as a protected voted to eliminate or reduce the punishments state of identity, to take effect within sixty under several articles of the penal code that days of publication. Local NGOs hailed this restricted the freedom of expression. How- decision as further incentive to the Senate to ever, these revisions had not been passed by ROMANIA 309 the Senate, and journalists continued to be become a country of asylum for many refu- harassed by the police. On May 26, Valentin gees from around the world, and remained in Dragan of the newspaper Cugetul liber was the process of bringing its national refugee severely beaten while attempting to recover legislation into line with the 1951 Convention a colleague’s camera. Since August 30, 2000, relating to the Status of Refugees, to which it a draft of a Law on Free Access to Information acceded in 1991. of Public Interest in Romania has been circu- lating. Several claims arising from libel cases Operation for Security and involving public officials were brought to the Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) European Court of Human Rights. Romania was to assume the year-long The Committee on the Elimination of chairmanship of the OSCE in January 2001. All Forms of Discrimination Against Women In a report released in April on the situation (CEDAW) observed that while Romania made of Roma and Sinti in the OSCE area, the high progress toward protecting and equalizing commissioner on national minorities empha- women’s rights, few women held leadership sized the need for educational reform in Ro- positions in their field, and placed high prior- mania, particularly for ethnic minorities. ity on the adoption of proposed legislation on equal opportunities, domestic violence, and Council of Europe trafficking in women. Women who dared to In June 2000 a delegation of the Advi- press charges against their traffickers faced sory Committee on the Council of Europe’s prosecution themselves for evading border Framework Convention for the Protection of controls and for engaging in prostitution. National Minorities visited Bucharest. The According to Romanian NGOs working on committee expected to publish its views trafficking, police corruption only exacer- early in 2001. bated the danger to trafficking victims and facilitated impunity for traffickers. More- European Union over, they were often coerced by police into Formal negotiations for Romania’s E.U. becoming informers. In August, Cambodian accession began in February. Romania pro- police and U.N. human rights officers rescued posed 2007 as the date of its accession. In its seven women from Romania and Moldova October 1999 progress report, the E.U. reaf- who had been trafficked and forced into firmed that Romania met the Copenhagen prostitution there. political criteria for membership, but cau- The National Agency for Child Protec- tioned that “this position will need to be tion was created in order to accelerate efforts re-examined if the authorities do not continue to reform the child welfare system in Roma- to give priority to dealing with the crisis in nia. Romania signed the optional protocol of their child care institutions.” The report also the Convention on the Rights of the Child, said that “much still remains to be done in concerning the Involvement of Children in rooting out corruption, improving the work- Armed Conflict. ing of the courts and protecting individual liberties and the rights of the Roma. Priority Defending Human Rights should also be given to reform of the public Human Rights Watch was not aware of administration.” any attempts to hinder the work of rights groups in 2000. United States The U.S. continued to cultivate close The Role of the International ties with Romania, including through military Community assistance, to prepare the country for NATO membership. In May, Secretary of State United Nations Madeline Albright and Prime Minister Mugur UNHCR reported that Romania had Isarescu pledged to continue the strategic 310 ROMANIA/RUSSIAN FEDERATION

partnership between Romania and the U.S. seats in the Federal Council. Romania was to receive U.S. $14 million in Putin’s background as a KGB official assistance from U.S. Agency for Interna- sparked fears of an impending crackdown on tional Development (USAID) for develop- human rights. Despite numerous public as- ment programs. surances of support for democratic values, Putin’s reactions to critical media coverage and some of his actions fuelled these fears. The appointment of former KGB officer RUSSIAN Vladimir Cherkesov as Putin’s representa- tive for the Northern Russia administrative FEDERATION region was another troubling sign; Cherkesov was known for his participation in persecut- Human Rights Developments ing dissidents in Soviet times and more re- The year was dominated by Russia’s cently in the prosecution of environmentalist brutal war in Chechnya and fears of an im- Alexander Nikitin. pending crackdown on civil and political The war in Chechnya continued through- rights. Russian soldiers and police committed out the year. After taking Chechnya’s capital war crimes and other serious violations of the Grozny in early February, Russian troops rules of human rights and humanitarian law in exercised nominal control over most of the Chechnya. Following Vladimir Putin’s elec- republic’s territory. Rebel forces retreated tion as Russia’s new president in March, the into the mountains to fight a guerrilla war, political climate changed as officials’ public staging surprise attacks on Russian positions statements showed increased intolerance to and convoys and murdering Chechens work- criticism and a general trend toward a new ing in the new pro-Russian administration. information order, of which the crackdown on Both sides showed scant respect for interna- the media conglomerate Media Most was the tional law, but the far larger force of Russian most emphatic. Abuse in the criminal justice troops backed by air power and artillery system and army continued unabated, pris- committed the lion’s share of violations. ons remained severely overcrowded, the situ- In an attempt to limit casualties among ation in many orphanages remained desper- its soldiers, Russia relied heavily on air at- ate, the state continued to be indifferent to tacks. Villages and towns were “softened up” cases of domestic violence and rape, and by prolonged aerial bombardments and shell- religious freedoms were further eroded. The ing before Russian troops moved in. This government once more failed to introduce the strategy led to large numbers of casualties structural reforms required to improve hu- among civilians and destruction of civilian man rights observance in these areas. property on a horrific scale. In many of the Vladimir Putin, the acting president fol- aerial or artillery attacks Russian officers did lowing Boris Yeltsin’s surprise resignation not differentiate between military and civilian on December 31, 1999, entered the March 26 objects. When targeting military objects, presidential elections as a clear favorite and Russian forces frequently used force that was won in the first round with just over 50 clearly excessive compared to the military percent of the vote—but not without wide- gain to be expected. spread election fraud. Putin quickly moved to The city of Grozny, bombed for three solidify his power by reigning in powerful straight months, from November 1999 to regional leaders and attacking the “oligarchs,” early February 2000, was essentially treated Russia’s very wealthy new economic elite. as one enormous military target. Though the He created seven administrative regions led vast majority of civilians had left the city by representatives responsible to the presi- before the assault started, an estimated twenty dent alone and forced legislation through to forty thousand civilians, many too poor, parliament to strip regional leaders of their sick, or infirm to leave, remained. These RUSSIAN FEDERATION 311 people were given little thought as the Rus- routes. On October 29, 1999, Russian planes sian military machine obliterated the city. fired multiple rockets at a convoy of Chechen The only hospital that functioned throughout civilians, including five clearly marked Red these months—though heavily damaged— Cross vehicles, on the road between Grozny treated 5,600 people (including Chechen fight- and Nazran, leaving at least fifty dead. The ers) for injuries sustained from the bombing convoy, consisting of hundreds of cars, was campaign; according to estimates this was travelling from the Ingush border back to only about half the total number of injured. Grozny after Russian forces had refused to Many thousands of civilians were believed to open the border to Ingushetia. The attack have died in Grozny alone. took place in excellent weather conditions and On January 31 and February 1, rebel it appeared inconceivable that the pilots were forces abandoned Grozny. An estimated two not aware that they were targeting civilians. thousand Chechen fighters quit the city and The Russian military claimed it destroyed stumbled into a minefield that claimed the two trucks with rebel fighters in the attack. lives of three field commanders and at least Russian forces showed scant respect for one hundred regular fighters; hundreds more medical neutrality. Russian bombs partially suffered serious injury, including notorious or fully destroyed many of Chechnya’s main commander Shamil Basaev. Russian artillery health care facilities, including every single and aviation tracked the fighters’ flight from hospital in Grozny. Russian forces detained Grozny to the mountainous south, destroy- and ill-treated several medical professionals ing the villages through which the fighters who had treated Chechen fighters. Chechen passed with total disregard for the civilian rebels threatened to kill at least one Chechen population. One of the worst hit villages was doctor for treating wounded Russian soldiers. Katyr-Yurt. On February 4, up to twenty After moving into villages and towns left thousand civilians desperately fled an intense by rebel fighters, Russian forces carried out bombardment there that commenced follow- “mopping up” operations. These operations, ing the arrival of large numbers of fighters in meant to check for remaining rebels, fre- the village. At least two hundred civilians died quently turned into rampages during which while many more were injured. Russian sol- soldiers and riot police looted and torched diers then systematically looted the village homes, detained civilians at random, and and destroyed civilian property. The village raped women. Just three such operations, in of Gekhi-Chu was given similar treatment on Alkhan Yurt, and in the Novye Aldy and February 7. Russian forces summarily ex- Staropromyslovskii districts of Grozny, re- ecuted at least seven people.On March 4, up sulted in the confirmed summary executions to a thousand Chechen fighters entered the of more than 130 civilians. Human Rights village of Komsomolskoye, apparently seek- Watch received over one hundred more alle- ing food and shelter. Russian forces sur- gations of summary executions, many of rounded the village and then, as civilians which it was unable to verify. sought to flee, subjected the village to a In Alkhan Yurt, Russian soldiers went withering assault, totally flattening it. At on a two-week rampage after entering the least one hundred civilians were unable to village on December 1, 1999. After first leave the village and were believed killed temporarily expelling hundreds of civilians, during the shelling. Hundreds of fighters also soldiers systematically looted and burned the reportedly died in the attack. Russian forces village and killed at least fourteen civilians. In refused to provide exit routes to civilians the Staropromyslovskii district of Grozny, fleeing from fighting and attacked convoys of Russian soldiers killed at least fifty-one civil- displaced persons on several occasions. Dis- ians between late December 1999 and early placed persons recounted numerous tales of February 2000; some were simply shot, oth- perilous escapes under constant fire and shell- ers were first tortured. On February 5, Rus- ing along roads that had been declared safe exit sian forces summarily executed at least sixty 312 RUSSIAN FEDERATION

civilians in the Novye Aldy and Chernorechie to run through a gauntlet of guards wielding suburbs of Grozny, including a one-year-old rubber batons and rifle butts. Thirty-two- baby and a woman who was eight months year-old Aindi Kovtorashvili, detained on pregnant. Soldiers pillaged and deliberately January 11, had a serious shrapnel wound to torched numerous houses. the head when he arrived at Chernokozovo, Looting was rampant throughout but guards made him “run the gauntlet” any- Chechnya. Soldiers systematically stripped way. He collapsed under the blows and died. bare civilian homes after taking control of Guards brutally beat detainees whenever they villages. Soldiers took not only valuables, were taken out of their overcrowded cells for money, and electronic equipment but often questioning and sometimes during interroga- also food, mattresses, windows, and even tions. Several detainees described methods of floorboards. Many civilians reported seeing torture, including injections, electric shock soldiers load looted goods onto trucks that and beatings to the genitals, beatings on the were subsequently driven out of the republic. soles of the feet, and rape of both men and Soldiers deliberately burned thousands of women. homes throughout Chechnya. As Chernokozovo attracted international Russian soldiers were believed to have attention, the Russian government “cleaned raped numerous Chechen women. Consider- up” the detention center and torture and ill- ing the great cultural stigma attached to rape treatment continued unabated at other loca- in Chechnya’s predominantly Muslim com- tions. Some of the most serious abuses then munities, allegations received by Human took place at the so-called internat in Urus- Rights Watch were believed to represent no Martan, a former boarding school for girls. more than a small fraction of the total. There Allegations of ill-treatment also came from was evidence that Russian servicemen raped temporary police precincts throughout the three women in Alkhan Yurt and six in Novye Russian controlled territory of Chechnya. Aldy. A woman from the village of Tangi-Chu Many of those who were released from was raped and murdered by a Russian officer. detention were “bought” out by relatives. Russian forces detained tens of thou- Extortion demands made upon prisoners’ sands of Chechens, often arbitrarily, on sus- relatives were so common that in many cases picion of belonging to rebel forces or assisting it appeared that the detention itself was them. Many of these Chechens faced beatings motivated solely as a money-making enter- and torture at detention centers throughout prise. Ransom varied from 2,000 rubles (ap- Chechnya. Many of those detained were proximately U.S. $80) to U.S. $5,000. Extor- released only after relatives paid a “ransom” tion was also rampant at hundreds of Russian to police or prison guards. checkpoints throughout Chechnya. Large scale arrests started in January Those displaced by the conflict faced 2000 after Gen. Viktor Kazantsev blamed difficult conditions in refugee camps in “groundless trust” in Chechen civilians for Ingushetia and Chechnya itself. The Russian setbacks in Russia’s military campaign. He government’s efforts to provide the displaced stated that “only children up to ten and men with food, medical care, and shelter were over sixty, and women, will henceforth be insufficient, leaving the brunt of the burden to regarded as refugees.” By late May, the Rus- humanitarian organizations. On various occa- sian Ministry of Interior announced that over sions, the government pressured displaced ten thousand people had been detained in people to return to Chechnya by depriving Chechnya since the beginning of the year. At them of food rations or simply attempting to the time of writing, Russian forces continued drive the train carriages, the temporary homes to detain large numbers of Chechen civilians. of some, back into Chechnya. Large scale torture and ill-treatment took Chechen rebels also showed little re- place in Chernokozovo in January and early spect for international humanitarian law. February. Upon arrival, detainees were forced They summarily executed at least some cap- RUSSIAN FEDERATION 313 tured Russian soldiers and murdered numer- Memorial and Civic Assistance, police pros- ous Chechens who worked in the new, pro- ecuted at least fifty Chechens after planting Russian administration. Chechen rebels fre- drugs and ammunition in their clothes or their quently endangered civilians by placing head- apartments. Moscow courts found most of quarters and garrisons in densely populated these Chechens guilty despite overwhelming areas or by firing at federal positions from evidence that the charges were trumped up. such places. On several occasions, rebels Members of other ethnic minorities also faced reacted violently when villagers asked them increased harassment by police. to leave in order to spare their villages from When Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov bombardments. Chechen criminal groups kid- spoke of a possible “Chechen connection” napped one Russian and one French journal- following another bombing in Moscow in ist in October 1999. Both were later released. August 2000, Chechens appeared to be in for Unknown Chechens summarily executed a repeat performance. However, the dramatic Vladimir Yatsina, a Russian photographer, in sinking of a Russian submarine diverted at- February after kidnapping him in Ingushetia tention from the bombing and police appar- in the summer of 1999. ently abandoned the crackdown, though not The Russian government did not hold before detaining and seriously beating at least those guilty of violations accountable. By some Chechens. September, not a single Russian soldier or Moscow authorities used the August police officer had been charged with or de- explosion to defend Moscow’s longstanding tained in connection with the massacres in propiska, or residency permit, system. Fed- Alkhan Yurt and in the Staropromyslovskii eral prosecutors had earlier ordered Moscow and Novye Aldy districts of Grozny. In to get rid of the system to bring regional Staropromyslovskii district, prosecutors were legislation in line with federal laws. At the investigating only one killing out of the fifty- time of writing, Moscow maintained its one that were documented. Officially an- propiska system. nounced investigations into other incidents Media freedom was another casualty of lacked credibility. In response to allegations the Chechnya campaign as Russia’s leader- of abuses, President Putin appointed Vladimir ship severely limited access to the war zone Kalamanov as his special representative for and became increasingly intolerant to criti- human rights in Chechnya in February. The cism. Most Russian media voluntarily sup- special representative’s office provided im- ported the government’s campaign. Those portant services to Chechens but did not which did not often faced sanctions. Andrei significantly contribute to the accountability Babitsky, a Radio Liberty correspondent, process. was reporting from Chechnya without offi- Chechens in Moscow faced very serious cial accreditation when he was detained by abuses in the aftermath of the bombings of Russian forces in mid-January and taken to two Moscow apartment buildings in Septem- Chernokozovo detention center, where guards ber 1999. Federal and local authorities took a beat him several times. In early February, the series of draconian administrative measures Russian government announced that Babitsky against non-Muscovites as a result of which had been handed over to a group of Chechen many children could not go to school while rebels, in exchange for captured Russian sol- adults had trouble finding work, getting mar- diers. Several weeks later he resurfaced in ried, or receiving passports. At the same time, Dagestan and was immediately arrested for Moscow police were given carte blanche to carrying falsified identity papers. He was terrorize ethnic Chechens living in the city. released in Moscow on February 29. A court Police dragged more than twenty thousand hearing was still pending at the time of writ- Chechens to police stations, photographing ing. and fingerprinting many of them. According Media freedom was also under threat to the Russian human rights organizations outside the Chechen context. On May 11, 314 RUSSIAN FEDERATION

heavily armed commandos of the procuracy number in a radio program. and federal security service raided the offices On September 13, the Presidium of the of Media Most, a media holding that owns Supreme Court dismissed the prosecution’s Russia’s independent television station NTV, appeal against the December 29, 1999, ac- radio Ekho Moskvy, and Segodnia newspa- quittal of environmentalist Alexander Nikitin. per, forcibly holding dozens of employee in With that decision, the criminal case, in which the building a full day. The law enforcement Nikitin was accused of espionage for the officers eventually confiscated part of Media Norwegian environmental organization Most’s records. Law enforcement agencies Bellona, finally came to an end as the prosecu- denied a political context but the heavy hand- tion had no further appeal options. edness with which the raid was carried out gave it the appearance of a warning to inde- Defending Human Rights pendent media. On June 13, Vladimir Human rights organizations working on Gusinsky, president of Media Most, was Chechnya faced problems of access to arrested. He was released several days later Chechnya and to official information, and after being charged with large-scale embezzle- petty harassment. Despite oral assurances ment. In late July, these charges were dropped that Human Rights Watch would be granted when Gusinsky agreed to transfer control access to Chechnya, this was not the case. over Media Most to the state-owned gas giant Memorial, a leading Russian rights group, Gazprom. also continued to face difficulties working The clumsy response by officials to the inside Chechnya. Human rights workers faced sinking of a nuclear submarine in the Barents occasional harassment from police and the Sea, which resulted in the deaths of 118 Federal Security Service (FSB). Numerous sailors, provoked a wave of criticism in the appeals by Human Rights Watch for informa- media, directed against President Putin and tion from the Russian authorities went unan- other state officials. Non-state media pointed swered. out inconsistencies in officials’ accounts and Other human rights activists also faced questioned President Putin’s decision not to occasional problems with authorities. For interrupt his vacation. Putin responded ag- example, on August 28 masked police com- gressively, accusing the media of “lying” and mandos stormed the office of a human rights “ruining Russia’s army and fleet.” organization, the Glasnost Foundation, with- No measures were taken to combat ram- out any apparent reason. The police carrying pant police torture or to reform the judicial out the raid taunted Sergei Grigoriants, the system. Police continued to torture detainees head of the organization, with the knowledge in order to secure confessions, using methods that he was a former dissident who had spent like beatings, asphyxiation, electric shock, time in prison for his political activities in and suspension by the arms or legs, as well as Soviet times. psychological intimidation. Police also gave privileges to certain detainees to pressure The Role of the International others into confessing. Prosecutors used co- Community erced confessions in court, often as the pri- mary evidence of a defendant’s guilt. The United Nations procuracy failed to investigate torture com- In December 1999, Human Rights Watch plaints promptly and adequately and they called on the Security Council to establish a rarely led to formal criminal investigations. commission of inquiry to investigate viola- On October 11, the Moscow City Court tions of the laws of war in Chechnya. The stripped Sergei Pashin, an outspoken oppo- Security Council, however, never formally nent of torture practices and a leading judge, discussed Chechnya. of his status for criticizing a judgment of a In late March, U.N. High Commissioner colleague and giving out his work telephone for Human Rights Mary Robinson travelled RUSSIAN FEDERATION 315 to the area after an earlier refusal of her request gence as a representative democracy.” for a visit sparked an international outcry. Robinson became the first senior interna- Council of Europe tional official to acknowledge receiving evi- A number of Council of Europe delega- dence of summary executions, torture, and tions visited the North Caucasus to assess the rape. Although Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov situation, including the European commis- at the end of the trip told Robinson she was sioner for human rights, members of the welcome to visit Chechnya again in a few Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of months, a formal invitation had not yet been Europe, and the Committee for the Preven- extended at the time of writing. tion of Torture. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights Chechnya figured prominently on the adopted a resolution criticizing Russia for agenda of all Parliamentary Assembly ses- violations of human rights in Chechnya—the sions in 2000. After its January recommenda- first time a resolution was adopted regarding tions went unheeded, a majority of parlia- a permanent member of the Security Council. mentarians voted in April to strip Russia’s The resolution, among other things, called on parliamentary delegation of its voting rights. the Russian government to establish “accord- The assembly also recommended that mem- ing to recognized international standards” a ber states file an interstate complaint against national commission of inquiry and mandated Russia with the European Court of Human five special mechanisms of the Human Rights Rights and that the Committee of Ministers Commission to visit Chechnya and report to start proceedings to exclude Russia from the the commission and the General Assembly. Council of Europe. At the time of the General Assembly session The Committee of Ministers brushed in the fall, none of the special mechanisms had aside all of the recommendations of the Par- been able to visit. The Russian failure to liamentary Assembly without serious dis- implement the resolution was raised at a one- cussion and said that Russia’s response to day commission session in September but no international pressure was satisfactory. public record of the discussion was issued. The secretary general of the Council of Europe invoked a seldom used mechanism to Organization for Security and require Russia to explain the application of Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) the European Convention on Human Rights At the November 1999 Istanbul sum- with regard to the conflict. When Russia’s mit, OSCE member states, including Russia, response was unsatisfactory, the secretary confirmed the mandate of the OSCE Assis- general deferred further action to the Commit- tance Group to Chechnya. The Russian gov- tee of Ministers, which remained silent. ernment, however, subsequently refused to The Council of Europe sent three ex- allow the Assistance Group to function in perts to the office of Vladimir Kalamanov Ingushetia and created administrative ob- starting in June. Although the presence of stacles to its return to Chechnya. As a result, these experts no doubt contributed to the the Assistance Group was unable to fulfill its efficiency of the office, the experts were not functions in a meaningful way. in a position to make a meaningful contribu- In other OSCE developments, its Office tion to the accountability process. for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) provided ad hoc technical and train- European Union ing assistance to the staff of Kalamanov’s In the early months of the war, the office. The office did not respond to evidence European Union (E.U.) under the Finnish of widespread fraud during the March presi- presidency took a fairly tough stance on dential elections, other than to characterize Russia, consistently criticizing its military the elections as “a benchmark in the ongoing operation and abuses and freezing some tech- evolution of the Russian Federation’s emer- nical assistance funds. After Boris Yeltsin 316 RUSSIAN FEDERATION/SLOVAKIA

resigned as president and it became apparent gress in May, Deputy Secretary of State that Vladimir Putin would become Russia’s Strobe Talbott went to great lengths to avoid next president, the E.U. toned down its criti- using the words “war crimes” to describe the cism and backed away from any tougher serious violations of humanitarian law that action. Russian forces have committed in Chechnya. To its credit, the E.U. introduced the The United States also failed to collect resolution on Chechnya at the U.N. Commis- first hand information independently on sion on Human Rights. However, the E.U. abuses by regularly sending diplomats to the itself undermined the importance of this step. region. As Russia openly defied all international criticism and refused to recognize or imple- Financial Institutions ment the resolution, the E.U. and its member The World Bank did not condition dis- states started a series of bilateral and multilat- bursement of loans to Russia on its actions in eral summit talks to establish good relations Chechnya, releasing U.S. $450 million in with Russia’s new president. structural adjustment loan payments to Rus- E.U. member states refused to take sia since the outbreak of the conflict in 1999. Russia to the European Court of Human Linked to various industrial reforms, these Rights over abuses in Chechnya. In response payments went directly to the Russian gov- to an appeal from more than thirty leading ernment for unfettered general budgetary human rights and humanitarian NGOs, the spending. Bank officials stated that they E.U. claimed that such a step was unneces- would monitor the impact of the conflict but sary as Russia was making progress toward this scrutiny was apparently limited to eco- accountability. The E.U. also refused to use nomic concerns. political and economic levers, such as sus- International Monetary Fund (IMF) pending the Partnership and Cooperation financing for Russia remained frozen, offi- Agreement or support for international lend- cially because of the slow pace of economic ing, to convince Russia to change its conduct reforms, but Russian officials claimed the in Chechnya. IMF decision was linked to the Chechnya In sharp contrast to its conduct in Kosovo conflict. in 1999, the E.U. failed to gather information independently on abuses in Chechnya. No Relevant Human Rights Watch E.U. diplomats visited Chechnya or even Reports: Ingushetia independently to interview vic- Civilian Killings in Staropromyslovski Dis- tims of human rights abuses, although a De- trict of Grozny, 2/00 cember 1999 declaration of the E.U. foreign February 5: A Day of Slaughter in Novye Aldi, ministers requested that they do so. 6/00 “No Happiness Remains:” Civilian Killings, United States Pillage, and Rape in Alkhan-Yurt, Chechnya, The United States limited itself to a 4/00 rhetorical response to the violations in “Welcome to Hell:” Arbitrary Detention in Chechnya. It criticised Russia consistently Chechnya, 10/00 over its actions in Chechnya but was unwill- ing to use any stronger political or economic levers. The United States was unwilling to suspend its support for international lending SLOVAKIA to Russia or to use bilateral economic assis- tance to convince Russia to change its con- Human Rights Developments duct. It actively pursued good relations with Slovakia made significant progress in Putin despite the war. At times, even the human rights protection, but incidents of rhetoric was flawed. Testifying before Con- employment discrimination, skinhead (racist SLOVAKIA 317 youth) violence, and police brutality and Kapusany; two Roma sustained serious inju- weak antidiscrimination legislation and en- ries. forcement threatened the Slovak Roma mi- On August 20, three men shouting racial nority. The governing Slovak Democratic epithets beat Anastazia Balazova, a fifty- Coalition (SDK), in office for two years, year-old Roma woman, and two of her daugh- faced criticism for failure effectively to imple- ters. She died from her injuries two days later. ment legislation such as the September 1999 Deputy Prime Minister Csaky called the Resolution and Measures Concerning the crime “deplorable,” but the chief investigator Roma National Minority. said that police had no evidence that the crime Slovakia continued its movement to- was racially motivated. On August 24, the ward European Union accession, took the Slovak parliament observed a minute of si- first step toward NATO membership by lence in memory of Anastazia Balazova. signing a joint statement calling for member- In August Justice Minister Jan ship by 2002, and became a member state of Carnogursky announced his opposition to the Organization for Economic Cooperation the registration of homosexual partnerships, and Development (OECD). which supporters framed as a potential E.U. Racially motivated attacks on Roma or accession issue since four member countries foreigners are not subject to special sanctions of the E.U. recognize homosexual partner- under Slovak law, which provides no express ships. protections against discrimination by reason of ethnic origin or nationality. Deputy Prime Protecting Human Rights Minister for Human and Minority Rights Pal Slovak and international NGOs moni- Csaky announced in May his plan to draft an tored threats to freedom of the media. In April antidiscrimination law. In November 1999 the New York-based Committee to Protect the Slovak National Labor Office director, Journalists, in a letter to President Schuster, despite criticism from rights groups, defended protested defamation charges brought against his office’s policy of marking files of persons Vladimir Mohorita, a journalist from the regarded as Roma with the letter “R”; he said Slovak far-right nationalist weekly Zmena. the practice was implemented because of the The European Roma Rights Center “complicated social adaptability” of the (ERRC) continued active monitoring and group. advocacy on behalf of Slovak Roma at home During a violent police raid in the Romani and abroad. The ERRC provided legal exper- settlement Zehra on December 2, 1999, po- tise in a case of skinhead violence; the second lice shot a thirteen-year-old boy in the leg, and court decision ordered the first instance court officers reportedly used ethnic insults and to widen its interpretation of race in accord threatened to rape Roma women. Both the with international standards, declaring the criminal complaint against the involved offic- incident a racially motivated crime. ers and the appeal were rejected. Slovakia earned praise among rights ad- On December 17, 1999, a skinhead in vocates for ratifying the Second Optional Car assaulted a twenty-one-year-old Romani Protocol to the International Covenant on man. A police spokesperson described the Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which incident as one of “youthful imprudence” and calls for abolition of the death penalty. ruled out a racial motive. On February 7, 2000, two Roma were run down and killed The Role of the International while walking with their son. Rather than Community arrest the suspect, a well-known Slovak, police threatened family members, beating United Nations some of them, the family said. On February In August the U.N. Committee on the 20, four assailants wielding baseball bats Elimination of Racial Discrimination received attacked Roma in a bar in the town of Velke Slovakia’s periodic report on combating ra- 318 SLOVAKIA/TAJIKISTAN

cial bias and adopted its concluding observa- sixth meeting of the E.U.-Slovakia Associa- tions and recommendations. The committee tion Council in June, the E.U. recognized stated its concern about allegations that Slo- progress in the protection of minorities, par- vak police and prosecutors have failed to ticularly the 1999 adoption of the minority investigate acts of racially-motivated vio- language law. The E.U. urged implementation lence promptly and effectively and about the of the law and particular attention to improv- socioeconomic status of Roma citizens. It ing the situation of the Roma. noted Slovakia’s recognition of the Some E.U. countries retained visa re- committee’s competence to receive discrimi- gimes, imposed in 1999 when a flood of nation claims from Slovak citizens. Slovak Roma sought asylum. Belgium sus- pended its visa requirement on August 1. Organization for Security and Norway lifted visa requirements for Slovak Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) nationals on August 15. The OSCE high commissioner for na- tional minorities issued a report on the situ- United States ation of Roma and Sinti in the OSCE area in During U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine March, citing unemployment rates of up to Albright’s November 1999 Bratislava visit, a 80 percent among Slovak Roma, the absence sign of dramatically improving relations with of Romani representatives in the 150-mem- Slovakia, Albright called for better treatment ber Slovak Parliament, and disadvantages of the Roma minority. In February 2000, the Romani children face in schools. U.S. State Department, in its annual report on human rights, noted considerable improve- Council of Europe ment in Slovakia but said that the status and European Court of Human Rights presi- police treatment of the Roma remained prob- dent Luzius Wildhaber ranked Slovakia among lems. the countries flooding the court with high numbers of complaints; currently there are 250 registered complaints from Slovakia, the majority of which are likely to be accepted. TAJIKISTAN Almost all of the complaints filed allege unfounded delays in court proceedings. A Human Rights Developments visit to Slovakia by the European Committee The Rakhmonov government sought to Prevent Torture in 2000 was announced, legitimation through flagrantly fraudulent par- but the findings had not been released at this liamentary elections in 2000. The elections writing. The Advisory Committee on the marked the last major step of the transitional Framework Convention for the Protection of process outlined in the June 1997 National Minorities visited Slovakia in Feb- government-United Tajik Opposition (UTO) ruary. In June the European Commission peace accord, but important provisions of the Against Racism and Intolerance published its agreement were not implemented. Demobili- second report on Slovakia, acknowledging zation of troops and reform of government recent positive steps taken by Slovakia but power structures remained incomplete, the recommending full adoption and implemen- 30 percent quota of government posts to be tation of antiracist legislation and of measures awarded to UTO representatives was never to combat discrimination against the Roma met, and national reconciliation stalled, with community. next to no representation of Uzbeks or Pamiris either in government or in the parliament. European Union Instead, members of the president’s Kuliabi In February the European Union (E.U.) regional group retained nearly all important opened membership talks with a group of six government posts, and the presidential candidate nations including Slovakia. At the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) dominated TAJIKISTAN 319 the parliament. Human rights protections tures—continued to aggravate the security were also compromised by the government’s situation. One positive result was a some- increasingly authoritarian rule, and by disor- what improved security climate in Dushanbe, der within law enforcement agencies and where by June many fewer armed persons internal power struggles among government and cars with blackened windows were vis- military and political leaders. ible, and where residents for the first time In the leadup to the February 27 parlia- since 1992 dared to stay outside into the late mentary elections Human Rights Watch as evening hours. Nonetheless, sporadic explo- well as a joint U.N.-OSCE observer mission sions and shootouts continued to occur in the witnessed state interference in the electoral capital. A May presidential decree resulted process that included the obstruction or ex- in the release of approximately 1,000 clusion of opposition parties, a wholly arbi- kontraktniki (contract servicemen) from ser- trary candidate registration process and fla- vice, but many reportedly remained in ser- grantly biased coverage by the state media. vice. On election day there were numerous and Former UTO commanders, based in the grave irregularities in the voting. Of sixty-three Karategin Valley and neither demobilized nor seats, the ruling PDP gained thirty, and eigh- awarded government posts, continued to head teen seats went to candidates who are mostly independent armed forces, and clashes be- PDP members or widely acknowledged to be tween these renegade forces and government solidly pro-government, although they ran as troops in Darband in late August led to the independents. The Communist Party won reported burning of civilian houses and killing thirteen seats and the Islamic Renaissance of livestock by government forces. Islamic Party two. A joint U.N.-OSCE observer insurgents who invaded Uzbekistan and mission noted that the elections failed to meet Kyrgyzstan in August were accused of main- minimum democratic standards, but calls for taining bases in northeastern Tajikistan, and the vote to be annulled in some districts or for former UTO combatants were accused of a recount of the vote went unheeded. Largely participating in the incursion. uncontested elections to the upper chamber Violence continued to characterize the held in March resulted in the election of an political scene. In Dushanbe on February 16 overwhelming majority of presidential party a bomb exploded in a car carrying Dushanbe members. mayor Mahmadsaid Ubaidullaev and deputy Wanton violence by members of law security minister and parliamentary candi- enforcement and other security agencies con- date Shamsullo Jabirov, fatally wounding the tributed to overall lawlessness and a precari- latter. On May 20, Saifullo Rahimov, chair- ous personal security situation for most civil- man of the State Committee on Radio and ians. Human Rights Watch documented nu- Television, was assassinated in Dushanbe by merous cases of extortion, kidnapping, and unidentified gunmen. The politico-military beating of ordinary civilians by Ministry of climate in the Karategin Valley deteriorated Internal Affairs, Ministry of Defense, and on June 3 when the chairman of the district of Ministry of Emergency Situations person- Garm, Sergei Davlatov, was shot down with nel. Members of these units were also respon- his bodyguard and driver. International orga- sible for unlawful killings of civilians during nizations temporarily evacuated the area af- operations to locate and confiscate illegal ter the killing, and at the time of writing, as in arms. The government made several limited the months previous, the Karategin Valley attempts to improve security through these remained off-limits for most staff of interna- arms recovery operations and the arrest of tional organizations. The year also saw members of the armed forces for common firefights in public venues between the heads criminal offenses. The failure to meet two of several Kuliabi-headed security units. objectives of the peace accord—demobiliza- The authorities arrested hundreds of tion and reform of government power struc- alleged members of the banned Islamic move- 320 TAJIKISTAN

ment Hizb-ut-Tahrir on charges of posses- The Role of the International sion or distribution of anti-state literature and Community a wide range of criminal activities. In August In the face of systematic corruption, a seven members were sentenced to terms of politically influenced judiciary, and rampant imprisonment of from five to twelve years on security force abuse, senior representatives charges of membership in illegal criminal of international and humanitarian organiza- groups and anti-state activities, while another tions working in the country and regional thirty-seven were on trial in Leninabad on specialists called frequently for human rights identical charges at the time of this writing. conditions to apply for funding from the International organization staff and local Bretton Woods institutions and other finan- sources reported that these arrests and trials cial bodies. were accompanied by incommunicado deten- The World Bank conducted a major tion and physical mistreatment. poverty assessment in 2000, with an aim to Electronic media remained under gov- establish a poverty reduction program and ernment control, and independent radio sta- provided credits totaling close to U.S. $200 tions remained off the air, as their wait for a million. The Asian Development Bank gave license from the government entered its third U.S. $120 million for agricultural, education, year. In May, Khorog-based state radio and health care reform, while Islamic Devel- employee Umed Mamadponoev was detained opment Bank representatives and the Coor- by police and “disappeared” after producing dination Group of Arab Foundations com- a locally aired program on the army mistreat- mitted funds for health and infrastructure ment of soldiers from Gorno-Badakhshan. projects. China contributed some U.S. Local and international sources fear $700,000 for military technical support. Mamadponoev was drafted by authorities for military service in retaliation for his broad- United Nations cast, but as of early September, his where- In spite of grievously flawed elections, abouts remained unknown. the unfulfilled peace agreement, and a precari- ous security situation, the United Nations Defending Human Rights Mission of Observers to Tajikistan As in previous years there was little (UNMOT) terminated its mandate on May human rights monitoring by local groups, but 15. UNMOT’s support for rushed elections a victory of sorts was shared by local women’s at the expense of human rights goals and NGOs when an unfair death sentence im- long-term political stability seemed at least posed on twenty-one-year-old Dilfuza partially designed to justify the peacekeeping Numonova was commuted in July. The move mission’s premature exit from the country. to commute her sentence had been spear- This haste to withdraw was illustrated by the headed by international organizations, but closure of its field offices, whose personnel many local women’s organizations signed had been tasked with overseeing and monitor- petitions to the government in her support. ing the parliamentary elections, even before The OSCE mission gained access to several of the runoff votes had been held. UNMOT was the country’s prisons and shared its findings replaced by a U.N. Tajikistan Office of Peace with international medical humanitarian orga- Building (UNTOP), manned in Dushanbe by nizations, one of which subsequently imple- only a handful of international staff members. mented an assistance program. The Interna- tional Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Organization for Security and continued to be denied access to prisoners in Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) accordance with its standard procedures. In 2000 a Khujand field office was added to those already in place in Shaartuz, Dusti, and Kurgan-Tiube, while an OSCE presence was maintained in Garm by a local staff TAJIKISTAN/TURKEY 321 member. The mission led a joint U.N.-OSCE State Department’s Country Reports on election observation team for the February Human Rights Practices for 1999 provided an parliamentary elections and produced a com- unbiased and in general accurate review of the prehensive report which noted that the elec- sorry state of human rights in Tajikistan. tions failed to meet minimum democratic standards. Noteworthy initiatives included a Relevant Human Rights Watch high-profile intervention on behalf of a pris- Reports: oner facing capital punishment, a sentence Freedom of Expression Still Threatened, later commuted to imprisonment, and access 11/99 to prisons by the mission.

The Republic of Uzbekistan The first official service flight in nine TURKEY years flew once between Dushanbe and Tashkent in August but was canceled when Human Rights Developments later in that same month Uzbek-Tajik rela- The Turkish government made almost tions soured following clashes between Is- no progress on key human rights reforms in lamic insurgents and government troops in 2000, and failed to take advantage of the Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan opportunity presented by a marked reduc- subsequently sealed its borders with tion in armed violence by illegal organiza- Tajikistan, and a visa regime between the two tions. This was in spite of the strong incentive countries became effective in September. coming from the European Union, which offered long-awaited recognition to Turkey Russian Federation as a candidate for membership, subject to its Russia kept a firm military presence in meeting human rights conditions. While the Tajikistan through its 201st Motorized Rifle government procrastinated, politicians and Division, the thousands-strong Russian Bor- writers were prosecuted and imprisoned for der Forces, and a permanent Russian military expressing their nonviolent opinions, and base in Khujand, and through support for detainees in police custody remained at risk antiterrorist and anti-drug trafficking activi- of ill-treatment, torture, or death in custody. ties. Russia threatened to conduct air strikes A reduction in political violence contributed against alleged Chechen training bases in Af- to a decrease in the overall volume of abuses. ghanistan. Russia failed to use its military ties There were fewer deaths in custody, suggest- to encourage measures to curb the lawless and ing that public and international pressure may abusive practices of the Tajik security forces. have had some inhibiting effect on police interrogators. United States The military, still an overriding force in Although United States Embassy inter- politics, was a factor in holding back change, national staff were relocated in September particularly with regard to freedom of expres- 1998 to Almaty for security reasons, the sion. The army publicly aired its views on a “suspended operations” status of the U.S. wide range of non-military issues, including embassy was lifted in late 1999, and United the selection of presidential candidates, and States embassy personnel based in Almaty justified these intrusions by reference to its traveled regularly to Dushanbe. The U.S. purported role as guardian of the republic Agency for International Development’s against separatism and religious fundamen- budget for Central Asia suffered close to a 30 talism. percent cut, and the agency elaborated a The government, trapped between pow- strategy to collaborate mainly with in-country erful conservative elements within the state NGOs and local government, particularly in and demands that Turkey fulfil its human the areas of health and environment. The rights commitments, equivocated, trying to 322 TURKEY

please both sides. In late 1999, for example, Left Party (DSP) and prime minister since it temporarily released Akin Birdal, impris- November 1998, continued in office, leading oned for a speech he gave while president of a coalition of the extreme right wing National the Turkish Human Rights Association, and Action Party (MHP) and the center right issued an amnesty for imprisoned and pros- ANAP (Motherland Party). In May, Ahmet ecuted journalists; both actions seemed de- Necdet Sezer was elected president of the signed to avoid official embarrassment at the republic, replacing Suleyman Demirel, who E.U. Helsinki Summit in December. Akin was nearing the end of his term. Sezer, a judge Birdal was rearrested in early March, and and former president of the Constitutional prosecutions of journalists resumed and con- Court, had made a series of speeches calling tinued throughout 2000. for the constitution and legal system of Tur- In December 1999 Turkey was finally key to be “cleansed” of their repressive fea- recognized as an E.U. candidate, but the tures. He sustained this theme in his inaugural opening of formal negotiations was condi- speech in which he said the Turkey could not tional on satisfaction of human rights criteria. “meet the demands of a modern society Apparently inspired by this, an excellent without abandoning the structure and regula- program of urgent reforms was announced in tions that bring to mind a police state.” January by the then State Minister with Unfortunately, government ministers Responsibility for Human Rights Mehmet who applauded his speech took no steps to Ali Irtemcelik, but little of the program was dismantle the battery of laws that restrict actually implemented. In August Turkey freedom of expression and inhibit political signed the International Covenant on Civil life. Political parties risked closure if they and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Interna- conflicted with the official line on the role of tional Covenant on Economic, Social and religion and ethnicity in politics. At this Cultural Rights (ICESCR), but the govern- writing, the religious Virtue Party (Fazilet) ment indicated that significant reservations and the mainly Kurdish People’s Democracy might be attached to Turkey’s ratification of Party (HADEP) were both subject to pend- the covenants. ing actions for closure in the Constitutional Six provinces in the southeast of Turkey Court. Local HADEP organizations were remained under state of emergency legisla- subject to harassment with members being tion. In 1999 the Kurdistan Workers’ Party arbitrarily detained and frequently ill-treated. (PKK) declared that it would abandon armed In February, Feridun Çelik, mayor of activities in Turkey, thus reducing the armed Diyarbakir; Selim Özalp, mayor of Siirt; and turbulence, particularly in the southeast, al- Feyzullah Karaaslan, mayor of Bingöl, were though some units of the PKK continued detained and ill-treated during five days of sporadic attacks, and there were some clashes incommunicado detention. They were re- between security forces and PKK groups manded to prison but released after four days withdrawing to Northern Iraq. Other illegal in response to international pressure. organizations, including the Workers and Although Turkish media and politicians Peasants’ Army of Turkey (TIKKO), the furiously debate many issues and openly Islamic Raiders of the Big East-Front (IBDA- criticize the government, those who contra- C) and the Revolutionary People’s Libera- dict the official line on the role of ethnicity, tion Party/Front (DHKP/C), continued their religion, or the military in politics risk pros- armed activities. Nevertheless, the number of ecution and imprisonment. In July a one-year clashes diminished considerably. The Anatolia sentence imposed on former prime minister News Agency reported in May that armed Necmettin Erbakan for a speech he made in incidents had decreased from 3,300 in 1994, March 1994 was confirmed by the Supreme to 1,436 in 1995, to 488 in 1999, to eighteen Court. Erbakan was charged under article 312 in the first five months of 2000. of the Turkish Criminal Code with “incite- Bülent Ecevit, leader of the Democratic ment to hatred on grounds of race or religion” TURKEY 323 although his speech contained no advocacy of documenting the persistence of torture. A hatred or violence. Criticism of the seventh was published in October. Based on government’s exclusion from higher educa- hundreds of interviews conducted during un- tion of women who wear the Islamic headscarf announced visits to police stations in the resulted in a one-year prison sentence for provinces of Istanbul, Batman, Erzincan, Hasan Celal Guzel, former Education Minis- Erzurum, Sanliurfa and Tunceli, the ter and leader of the Rebirth Party. commission’s work was a model of parlia- Such convictions under article 312 of the mentary supervision. Turkish Criminal Code also triggered bans on In March 2000 the Human Rights Com- participation in politics or civil society. mission interviewed a number of juveniles at Government efforts to reform or abolish the Bakirkoy Prison for Women and Children article 312 were blocked by the military: who had been held at various police stations Minister of Justice Hikmet Sami Türk explic- in Istanbul in the preceding weeks and who itly acknowledged the chief of general staff’s described being stripped naked and subjected opposition to amendment of article 312. to electric shocks, hosing with cold water Article 312, however, was only one of under pressure, beating with a truncheon, many laws that inhibited freedom of expres- falaka (beating on the soles of the feet), and sion. Prison sentences were also handed down being forced to stand for hours in a chest-high under article 155 for “alienating the people barrel of water. One fourteen-year-old de- from the institution of military service,” ar- scribed being interrogated under torture for ticle 159 for “insulting state institutions,” and eight days at Kadikoy Yeldegirmeni Police article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law for “separat- Station, and told the commission where they ist” statements. could find pickaxe handles used for beating The campaign to restrict the wearing of the soles of detainees’ feet. When the com- headscarves for religious reasons in educa- mission later went to the police station, the tional settings or on state premises continued instruments were found just as the youngster unabated, strongly supported by the Office had indicated. of the Chief of General Staff. This campaign, On the basis of leads given by young waged in the name of secularism, resulted in people interviewed at Bakirkoy Women and thousands of devout Muslim women being Children’s prison, the commission went to temporarily or permanently denied access to Istanbul’s Kucukkoy Police Station, located education, while others were suspended or an apparatus used to suspend detainees by discharged from employment in teaching or the arms, photographed it, and handed the health care. photographs over as evidence for judicial Many cases of torture and ill-treatment proceedings. At the same police station the were reported by detainees accused of theft commission was told that a room with a and other common criminal offenses as well locked door was “an unused storage room” to as those interrogated under the Anti-Terror which the key had been lost. The commission Law. Blindfolding continued to be routine. members broke a panel of the door and peered Incommunicado detention, condemned by through to find “all of the walls, including the U.N. and Council of Europe specialists as a door, were covered with yellow sponge, in major factor in torture, was not abolished. order to give sound insulation . . . . Almost all There was one reported death in custody. of the children who had told the Commission In recent years, reports by the European that they had been tortured at this police Committee for the Prevention of Torture station had described this room covered in (CPT) and the U.N. special rapporteur on yellow foam.” There were “lost keys” and torture have confirmed the widespread nature soundproofed interrogation rooms in other of torture in Turkey. In May 2000 the Human police stations and provinces as well. Rights Commission of the Turkish Parlia- There were no verified reports of “dis- ment issued six long and detailed reports appearance,” but the authorities continued to 324 TURKEY

ignore demands for investigation of the pat- Justice made a public statement that prison- tern of “disappearances” from the mid-1990s. ers had resisted security forces who “took The European Court of Human Rights con- care to apply only such force as was neces- tinued to investigate outstanding cases. In sary to break the resistance, using modern June the court found the Turkish government equipment rather than firearms, and to end the responsible for the 1994 “disappearance” of riot without causing any damage.” Abdulvahap Timurtas after his detention by Although Turkey retained the death gendarmes in Silopi, Sirnak Province. penalty and courts continued to hand down Tension increased in the prison system death sentences, the sixteenth successive year as Sincan F-Type Prison, the first of a new passed without judicial executions. In June generation of high security facilities, reached the prime minister and the minister of justice completion. The new prisons consisted of expressed personal opposition to the death one- and three-person cells rather than the penalty and called for its abolition, regretting large wards that were traditional in the Turk- that there was not unanimity on this issue ish prison system. Prisoners held under the within the coalition government. Anti-Terror Law were alarmed that they were By retaining a geographic limitation to about to be moved into a regime of intense its ratification of the 1951 U.N. Convention isolation under article 16 of that law. A relating to the Status of Refugees, Turkey number of prisoners at Kartal Special Type refuses to recognize any asylum seekers as Prison in Istanbul are already held in small refugees unless they come from Europe and group isolation characterized by a limited and therefore continued to be a hazardous desti- monotonous physical and social environ- nation for asylum seekers, most of whom are ment with no out-of-cell time, in clear viola- Iranian and Iraqi. In May nine Bangladeshi, tion of international prison standards. Afghan, and Pakistani asylum seekers were In June, in the wake of protests by rights shot dead by Turkish security forces as they groups, including Human Rights Watch, law- crossed the border at Dogubayazit, near Agri yers were told that clients held at Kartal in eastern Turkey. Special Type Prison would be allowed access Although illegal armed organizations to the library and sports facilities in groups of carried out fewer attacks on civilians, in three five or ten, but this was not implemented. In separate incidents in August, Bektaþ Kaya July the CPT visited Turkey and examined and Sadik Kaya, both village officials, and Sincan F-Fype Prison, but as of October its Hamdi Sahin, a villager, were abducted and findings had not been published. killed in Tokat province. The Workers and In October, the Ministry of Justice Peasants’ Army of Turkey (TIKKO) was published a draft law abolishing mandatory believed to be responsible for the killings. solitary or small-group isolation for prison- ers held under the Anti-Terror Law. Defending Human Rights In July a group of prisoners at Burdur In a policy paper prepared as part of the Prison refused to attend court hearings in E.U. accession process, the Turkish protest against the planned implementation government’s Special Committee on Turkey- of F-type prisons. Gendarmes who entered E.U. Relations made the welcome suggestion the prison to suppress the protest beat and that “the constructive function of nongovern- injured male and female prisoners. Medical mental organizations in raising human rights reports issued by Burdur State Hospital awareness should be encouraged and there indicated that prisoners were suffering from should be closer cooperation and communica- burns and broken limbs and ribs, and that tion with them.” This intention was not well female prisoners had complained of being reflected in practice, as members of Turkish raped with objects. The arm of one prisoner, human rights organizations were obstructed Veli Sacilik, was torn off by an excavator used in their work in various ways ranging from ill- to break into the ward. The Ministry of treatment to prosecution. Public demonstra- TURKEY 325 tions and press conferences on human rights followed human rights developments with issues were repeatedly prohibited by local intense interest. For most of the year the officials or broken up by police, sometimes E.U.’s public and private commentary mainly violently. consisted of expressions of frustration at the The Diyarbakir and Van branches of the loss of momentum and the sluggardly pace of Human Rights Association (HRA) and the reform. In April E.U. Enlargement Commis- Malatya branch of the Association of Human sioner Günter Verheugen told the Turkish Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples foreign minister: “With some concern, we (Mazlum-Der) were closed for much of the have unfortunately noted that not much year by order of local governors or the gover- progress has been made since Helsinki.” The nor of the Emergency Region. Turkish-European Joint Parliamentary Com- The governor of the Emergency Region mission echoed this observation in its June prevented a delegation of the Diyarbakir statement. Democracy Platform, a group of civil society The particular emphasis that the Euro- organizations, from crossing the border with pean Union places on minority rights in northern Iraq where they hoped to investigate Turkey was a cause of friction. In September, the killing of an estimated forty civilians the Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed irri- during the Turkish armed forces’ bombing of tation that the European Parliament on releas- Lolan, Kendakor region, in northern Iraq in ing an aid package of 135 million euros (U.S. August. $117 million) to Turkey had proposed linking the funds to progress on Kurdish cultural The Role of the International rights and the economy in the southeast. Community United States Council of Europe The State Department’s Country Re- The Council of Europe monitored Tur- port on Human Rights Practices for Turkey key through its political, investigative, and in 1999 fully reflected the scale of violations judicial bodies. and official interference in political and public The European Court of Human Rights life. The report detailed many cases of people found Turkey responsible for “disappear- imprisoned for expressing their nonviolent ance,” extrajudicial execution, death in cus- opinions, and of torture and arbitrary killing, tody, torture, and suppression of freedom of and accurately documented the impunity that expression in twelve new decisions. protected the perpetrators of violations. Se- No report on the CPT’s July mission to nior government officials publicly called for Turkey had been published as of October progress on human rights. In January, in 2000. This mission’s stated priority was to response to a congressional letter, President examine the current changes in the prison Clinton expressed support for language rights system. Reports on visits could only be and an interest in the Kurdish minority. published with the consent of the government Consistent with this, there was a strong in question, and in Turkey’s case, reports on reaction to the arrest of the HADEP mayors eight visits remain unpublished. in March. In July, the Turkish government an- European Union nounced that U.S. helicopter manufacturer The development of an Accession Part- Bell Textron won the contract for 145 attack nership Agreement proved an unparalleled helicopters, a sale worth an estimated four opportunity for domestic and international billion dollars. This class of equipment has pressure for positive change. Consequently, been used to commit human rights violations the European Commission and the European in Turkey, including “disappearances” and Parliament were in close contact with Turkish arbitrary killings, and the sale is subject to authorities and Turkish civil society and congressional approval. A congressional de- 326 TURKEY/TURKMENISTAN

bate was not expected before 2001. Rights being harmed in this case.” Another decree groups protested the pending sale and pressed reaffirmed the inviolability of private prop- the U.S. government to ensure at least that erty, despite a continuing spate of official effective systems be put in place to ensure confiscations of private homes. Niazov also end-use monitoring of this equipment. established a special “commission for ensur- ing legality.” Relevant Human Rights Watch Security forces arrested longtime politi- Reports: cal activist Nurberdi Nurmamedov, leader of Human Rights and the European Union Ac- the banned opposition political party cession Partnership, 9/00 Agzybirlik (Unity), on January 5. Small Group Isolation in Turkish Prisons: An Nurmamedov was sentenced in February to Avoidable Disaster, 5/00 five years in prison on fabricated charges of “hooliganism.” Faced with the threat of a prison sentence for his son, who was also arrested, Nurmamedov was forced to make a TURKMENISTAN televised request for the president’s forgive- ness. The KNB (State Security Committee, Human Rights Developments formerly the KGB) officials demanded that As his cult of personality soared to new Nurmamedov’s family state publicly that his heights, President Saparmurad Niazov con- case was not political, but “a purely criminal tinued to crack down on political and religious matter.” The Information Center for Human dissidents, to restrict freedom of the press Rights in Central Asia reported that and of movement, and to eliminate even the Nurmamedov and two fellow political pris- trappings of democracy. oners, Mukhametkuli Aimuradov and Pirikuli Turkmenistan defaulted upon its inter- Tangrykuliev, underwent severe beatings in national commitments on political reform September. when at the end of 1999 its Parliament voted Minority rights suffered in 2000 when to remove term limits for the presidency, the president issued new restrictions on the opening the way for Niazov to remain in the use of Russian for official business. Report- presidency indefinitely. Parliamentary elec- edly, the number of Russian speakers seeking tions, held in November, were neither free nor to leave Turkmenistan increased significantly fair. this year. The output of Uzbek language print In August, police prevented two hun- and broadcast media for Turkmenistan’s size- dred village women from entering the capital able Uzbek minority in the east of the country where they intended to take their grievances also reportedly shrank. directly to the president, according to the An ominous June decree ordered the Moscow-based Information Center for Hu- National Security Committee and other state man Rights in Central Asia. agencies to maintain “strict control” over the At the end of 1999, Turkmenistan abol- movements of foreigners in the country. At ished the death penalty, in one of several least one foreign journalist was questioned by measures promoted by President Niazov to the KNB. In August, KNB officials con- further human rights protection. In May, a tacted Radio Liberty stringer Saparmurad law was passed “on banning searches in the Ovezberdiev, whose activities had already homes of Turkmenistan’s citizens” without been closely monitored, to tell him that he judicial authorization. Niazov said the law could no longer report for RFE/RL because he responded to a reality in which law enforce- lacked accreditation, despite the permission ment officials “could plant one or two grams granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for of drugs or other things in some of those RFE journalists to work there. houses they were searching in order to take Turkmenistan became one of the world’s vengeance on people, and many people are strictest censors of the Internet when on May TURKMENISTAN 327

29, the country’s communications ministry Authorities forced the family of imprisoned unilaterally revoked the licenses of all five Turkmen Baptist pastor Shahgildy Atakov private internet service providers (ISPs), forc- into internal exile, while his brother was ing all Internet use to run through the state imprisoned on trumped-up administrative monopoly provider. charges for fifteen days in March. The 1997 amendments to the Law on Muslim as well as Christian religious Religion, which effectively ban religious de- dissidents fell victim to persecution this year. nominations aside from Sunni Islam and Rus- In February, Turkmen authorities arrested sian Orthodoxy remained in force, though Khoja Ahmed Orazgylych and charged him Turkmenistan bowed to international pres- with unspecified economic crimes, in retalia- sure and promised to halt police raids on tion for his broadcast criticism on Radio prayer meetings conducted in private homes. Liberty’s Turkmen service of the president’s Turkmenistan continued to imprison reli- pronouncements on religion. While in cus- gious believers, dismiss them from their jobs, tody, a letter purportedly signed by confiscate religious materials, and destroy Orazgylych that begged the forgiveness of the houses of worship. On November 13, 1999, president was published in the newspapers. Turkmen security forces bulldozed The president publicly threatened to im- Ashgabat’s Seventh-Day Adventist Church. prison the seventy-two-year-old Islamic Also in November, authorities rejected the scholar for twenty-five years, but on March application of the Turkmen Bible Society for 3, the president “commuted” Orazgylych’s registration, though the group reportedly met punishment to internal exile for an undefined all of the official requirements. term (no evidence is publicly available that In December, police and security offi- any judicial proceeding ever took place). That cials detained Dmitrii Melnichenko and very day, security forces removed Orazgylych Mikhail Kozlov and beat, threatened, and and his family to the provincial town of Tejen tortured them in order to obtain information and bulldozed his Ashgabat home and the about the whereabouts of two Baptist pas- mosque he had built on its grounds. President tors who were later deported. Police the same Niazov ordered all copies of Orazgylych’s month raided Baptist churches in Turkmen translation of the Koran to be burned. Turkmenabad (Chardjou), Mary, In April, Niazov decreed that all Muslim Turkmenbashi, and Ashgabat. Repression of religious schools, save for a select few schools protestant Christian groups appeared to have run directly by the state-controlled religious intensified in February, when the KNB raided authority, the Muftiat, should be closed, in several religious meetings held by protestant effect banning private Muslim religious edu- groups in private homes, and several in the cation. As many as three hundred foreign congregation were subsequently fired from Islamic preachers had reportedly been de- their jobs, according to the Keston Institute. ported from Turkmenistan this year. Also in February, police sealed the premises Academic freedom and recognition of of a building bought by Baptists for use as a the right to education reached a new low. The house of worship in the town of Mary, and president called for three-generation “back- confiscated all of the religious literature in- ground checks” to determine potential uni- side. In October, local KNB arrested Seventh versity students’ “moral character” before Day Adventist pastor Pavel Fedotov at a they are admitted to study. Niazov also bible reading in Chardjou, charging him with abolished his country’s World Languages holding an unsanctioned meeting and confis- University, ordered that the entire printing of cating videotapes and other articles. He was a new Turkmen history textbook be burned, released several days later. and decreed that foreign languages should no By early in the year, Turkmen police had longer be taught in schools. reportedly expelled the last remaining Rus- sian Baptist missionaries in the country. 328 TURKMENISTAN/UNITED KINGDOM/NORTHERN IRELAND

Defending Human Rights mission on Human Rights session in March Turkmenistan allows no domestic non- noted that human rights observance was “de- governmental human rights organizations to teriorating.” exist. Nina Shmeleva, fifty-seven, a journalist and activist of the unregistered Russian Com- United States munity of Turkmenistan who had attempted While the U.S. criticized high profile to assist ethnic Russians trying to emigrate abuses, such as the arrest of Nurmamedov, from Turkmenistan, was forced to confess to statements were frequently delayed or “financial fraud” and was sentenced in May downplayed so as not to interfere with nego- to five years in prison (her sentence was later tiations on Turkmenistan’s participation in reduced to a six-year probation). the planned TransCaspian natural gas pipe- line. The Clinton Administration ignored the The Role of the International recommendations of the U.S. government’s Community Commission on International Religious Free- dom to designate Turkmenistan as a country Organization for Security and of particular concern, a step that could have Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) triggered sanctions. The OSCE pointedly refused to send even a scaled-down mission to observe European Bank for Reconstruction Turkmenistan’s parliamentary elections in and Development (EBRD) December, and denounced the arrest of After President Niazov refused to meet Nurberdi Nurmamedov. Its representative a visiting EBRD delegation, the bank an- on freedom of the media criticized the nounced in April that it would halt all public life-presidency. Chairman-in-Office Benita sector lending to that country, citing Ferrero-Waldner visited Turkmenistan in Turkmenistan’s refusal to implement “prin- May for talks on security, economics, the ciples of multi-party democracy, pluralism environment, and human rights, and invited and market economics,” as required by the Turkmenistan to participate in a multilateral bank’s charter. The bank had earlier cancelled project on resolving disputes over water use a planned U.S. $50 million investment to in the region, sponsored by the OSCE’s upgrade one of the country’s main highways. Office of Democratic Institutions and Hu- man Rights (ODIHR), the European Com- munity, and the World Bank, an offer Presi- dent Niazov promptly rejected. For the third UNITED year in a row, Turkmenistan refused to sign a substantive Memorandum of Understand- KINGDOM/ ing with the ODIHR, one of the conditions under which the OSCE had agreed to establish NORTHERN its Ashgabat office. IRELAND European Union In November 1999 the European Union Human Rights Developments (E.U.) signed an Interim Agreement, extend- In accordance with the 1998 Multi-Party ing full trade benefits to Turkmenistan, ren- Agreement, the British parliament devolved dering almost meaningless the continued sus- power to the new executive and assembly for pension on human rights grounds of the Northern Ireland in December 1999. In Feb- Partnership and Cooperation Agreement rati- ruary 2000, these institutions were suspended fication process. The E.U. also praised and direct rule by Westminster was reim- Turkmenistan’s abolition of the death pen- posed when disagreements among political alty, though its statement at the U.N. Com- parties and paramilitary groups stymied the UNITED KINGDOM/NORTHERN IRELAND 329 process of decommissioning weapons. After Drug Enforcement Agency, was appointed a favorable subsequent report by a decom- oversight commissioner for police reform. missioning panel, the executive and assembly While the report envisioned a proactive com- were reinstated in May. The agreement was missioner with a key role in setting objectives threatened again during July and August when in the reform process, the delay in internal feuding among loyalist paramilitary Constantine’s appointment and the bill’s organizations led to three killings, putting the provisions suggested that the U.K. govern- loyalist cease-fire into question. Despite ment saw a much narrower role for the post. political setbacks, reforms dealing with hu- The bill also failed to incorporate the recom- man rights under the agreement—including mendation that the name of the force be police reform and a criminal justice system neutralized to Police Service of Northern review—proceeded, albeit with some disap- Ireland. The bill proposed that the force’s pointing outcomes. Other issues of concern name be changed to “Police Service of North- included new antiterrorism legislation; gov- ern Ireland (incorporating Royal Ulster Con- ernment stalling on establishing independent stabulary)” on all title documents, causing judicial inquiries into the murders of two nationalist and republican political parties to human rights lawyers; and impunity for po- accuse the British government of bad faith.The lice abuse. bill went back to the House of Commons in The draft legislation to implement the the late fall for a final reading. 1999 Patten Commission report on police The Criminal Justice Review in its March reform failed to incorporate several key pro- 2000 report failed to address the effect of visions of the report, in particular Patten’s emergency laws on the criminal justice sys- call for a policing service with human rights tem; to consider new judicial arrangements, or protections at its core. As of October 2000, the limited capacity of existing ones; to ad- the draft bill departed significantly from the dress human rights issues arising from pas- recommendations addressing the crucial issue sage of the 1998 Human Rights Act and the of police accountability mechanisms and the proposed Bill of Rights; and to include an creation of a new name and symbols for the independent oversight element, relying solely Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), Northern on the government for the report’s implemen- Ireland’s police force. These departures tation. The report recommended the estab- threatened future recruitment of traditionally lishment of a Judicial Appointments Com- excluded groups—primarily Nationalists and mission; a bench more “reflective” of North- Catholics—to the service. ern Ireland’s population; the creation of a new Patten called for the police ombuds- prosecution service; and the appointment of man—which replaced the ineffective Inde- an attorney general. Human rights groups pendent Commission for Police Complaints— criticized the report for avoiding an account- to have the power to investigate and comment ability mechanism for past and pending cases. upon police policies and practice and have In October 2000, the 1998 Human Rights access to past reports on police conduct. The Act, incorporating the European Convention ombudsman’s remit was limited to the inves- on Human Rights (ECHR), went into force tigation of individual complaints only and throughout the U.K. with a derogation from access to government documents was re- article 6 (fair trial standards) intact. stricted. In a separate move to hold the chief The Terrorism Act 2000—permanent, constable accountable, the Patten Commis- U.K.-wide, anti-terrorism legislation replac- sion envisioned a civilian Police Board with ing emergency laws concerning political vio- authority to establish inquiries and to call for lence—became law in July and will come into reports on policing matters. The proposed force in spring 2001. The act extended, for up bill placed several important restrictions on to five years, most of the emergency powers the board’s authority, however. In May 2000, that applied in Northern Ireland, including Thomas Constantine, former head of the U.S. retention of non-jury Diplock courts for 330 UNITED KINGDOM/NORTHERN IRELAND

certain political offenses; a lower standard of death of Robert Hamill, who was brutally admissibility for confession evidence than in assaulted by a loyalist mob in Portadown in the criminal courts; the admissibility of state- April 1997 and subsequently died from his ments by a senior police officer coupled with injuries. Hamill’s assault occurred twenty a suspect’s remaining silent as evidence that yards from a Land Rover containing four a suspect belonged to an illegal organization armed RUC officers. One person was con- (for example, a paramilitary group); and po- victed of “causing an affray” in the incident, lice and army powers of arrest, entry, search, but no person had been convicted of the and seizure without a warrant. murder, despite an investigation by the ICPC The Human Rights Commission Bill and consideration by the DPP. The coroner became law in the Republic of Ireland in June concluded that concerns for the safety of 2000. The Irish commission’s creation, witnesses outweighed the imperative for an coupled with the March 1999 inauguration of inquest. In June, the Irish government backed the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commis- the call by human rights groups for an inquiry. sion, paved the way for the future establish- The Bloody Sunday Inquiry—a new ment of a joint committee of representatives tribunal of inquiry into the British army from the two commissions, tasked by the killings of fourteen men in Derry on January Multi-Party Agreement with the consider- 30, 1972—opened in March. The original ation of human rights concerns in all of Ire- tribunal, finding the army not liable for any of land. the deaths, was discredited. In September, the family of murdered In December 1999, Castlereagh Holding Belfast lawyer Patrick Finucane met with Centre, notorious for the physical and psy- Prime Minister Tony Blair to press for an chological ill-treatment of political suspects, independent public inquiry into his killing by was closed. loyalist paramilitaries in 1989. The family David Adams’ application for judicial stepped up efforts to establish an inquiry review—which sought to challenge the DPP’s since new evidence was presented to the decision not to prosecute the police officers British and Irish governments in February responsible for brutally assaulting Adams in 1998 and in an updated report in February Castlereagh Holding Centre in 1994—was 2000. The Finucane family and rights orga- denied in June 2000. The application also nizations accused the British government of sought judicial review of the DPP’s failure to using the June 1999 arrest and pending pros- give Adams reasons for the decision not to ecution of William Stobie—charged with aid- prosecute, particularly as the decision came ing and abetting the Finucane murderers—to after a civil court judgment supporting Adams’ stall the establishment of an inquiry. version of the attack. In September, it was No person was charged with the March reported that one officer would face a minor 1999 loyalist paramilitary car bomb murder disciplinary charge of “willful or careless of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson. falsehood.” Citing earlier police intimidation of Nelson, human rights organizations continued to call Defending Human Rights for an independent judicial inquiry into the In July 2000, the police informed civil killing. The director of public prosecutions rights lawyer, Padraigin Drinan, that she was (DPP) decided in January 2000 not to pros- under threat from loyalist paramilitaries. ecute criminally the police officers that ha- Drinan succeeded Rosemary Nelson as the rassed Rosemary Nelson. In May 2000, the lawyer for the Garvaghy Road Residents Independent Commission for Police Com- Association. After significant delays, the plaints (ICPC) decided not to take disciplin- government provided Drinan with assistance ary action against any of the officers. to fortify her home and protect her person. The coroner for Greater Belfast decided in June 2000 not to hold an inquest into the UNITED KINGDOM/NORTHERN IRELAND/UZBEKISTAN 331

The Role of the International Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon in the Community first visit to the U.S. by the leaders of North- ern Ireland’s new government. Clinton ex- United Nations pressed his ongoing support for the peace In a February 2000 report, the U.N. process. special rapporteur on freedom of expression The U.S. House of Representatives In- urged the U.K. to repeal emergency laws that ternational Relations Committee recom- had a “chilling effect” on the right to free mended in September a congressional resolu- expression; protect journalists’ confidential tion demanding the full implementation of the sources; amend the Official Secrets Act to Patten recommendations on police reform. allow penalties for disclosure only when a The Commission on Security and Coop- legitimate national security interest is impli- eration in Europe (CSCE) held a hearing in cated; and disclose classified information to March on the protection of human rights the public—in particular, the findings of the defenders in Northern Ireland and called for Stalker/Sampson and Stevens inquiries into independent inquiries into the Finucane and collusion. Nelson murders. The CSCE held another The U.N. special rapporteur on the hearing on policing in Northern Ireland in independence of judges and lawyers reiter- September. ated his call for an independent judicial in- The U.S. State Department’s Country quiry into the murder of Patrick Finucane. Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1999 Noting inconsistencies regarding the murder’s provided a fair assessment of human rights previous investigation, the special rappor- concerns in Northern Ireland, noting police teur stated that “such inconsistencies... gen- abuse and impunity; intimidation of defense erally arise in cases where there have been lawyers; emergency laws and abuse of special cover-ups by interested parties, including powers; and calls for a ban on plastic bullets. State organs.” Relevant Human Rights Watch Council of Europe Reports: In April, the European Court of Human Northern Ireland: A New Beginning to Polic- Rights (ECHR) ruled admissible four cases ing? The Report of the Independent Commis- against the U.K. The cases of Gervaise sion on Policing, 11/99 McKerr, Patrick Shanaghan, the Loughgall eight, and Pearse Jordan charged violations of the right to life, the inadequacy and partiality of mechanisms to investigate killings by state UZBEKISTAN agents or where collusion is alleged, and discrimination. Human Rights Developments A June 2000 ECHR decision in the case The government of President Islam of Gerard Magee found the U.K in breach of Karimov continued its unrelenting campaign fair trial standards for denying Magee access against pious Muslims who practiced their to a lawyer for the first forty-eight hours of religion outside state controls. State authori- detention, holding him virtually incommuni- ties punished independent Muslims with cado, and creating a “psychologically coer- discriminatory arrest, incommunicado deten- cive” interrogation environment that forced tion, torture, and prison sentences of up to Magee to make incriminating statements twenty years for violations of strict laws on against himself. religion and alleged “anti-constitutional ac- tivity.” Police regularly threatened and ha- United States rassed relatives of independent Muslims. On September 13, President Clinton Sham parliamentary and presidential elec- met with First Minister David Trimble and tions deprived citizens of their right to politi- 332 UZBEKISTAN

cal participation. When conflict broke out hiding in March 1998. between armed insurgents opposed to the Dozens of people accused of being fol- Karimov regime and the governments of lowers of Imam Nazarov were arrested, add- Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, civilians were ing to the hundreds of former attendees of his displaced by the fighting, kidnapped by the Tashkent mosque already in prison on fabri- armed opposition forces, and killed by cated charges. landmines placed by Uzbek troops. Authori- Two former imams of official govern- ties continued to impose obstacles to abused ment mosques who had been linked to women’s attempts to obtain justice for do- Nazarov, who were arrested earlier and re- mestic abuse and were allegedly complicit in leased in 1999, were rearrested in 2000. Imam trafficking women and girls. The government Abdurahim Abdurahmonov, a former stu- retained tight control over the media. dent of Imam Nazarov who suffered from The government branded those with permanent injuries from torture in custody in dissenting views “enemies of the state” and 1998, was released under a 1998 presidential added hundreds of Muslims to the thousands amnesty and then rearrested on charges of already imprisoned for their religious beliefs. narcotics possession in 1999. Authorities Members of the Islamic organization Hizb ut- released him in September 1999, following a Tahrir (Party of Liberation) were arrested for successful appeal. In 2000, he was again unregistered religious activity, a crime in arrested and, in a grossly unfair trial, sen- Uzbekistan, and possession or distribution tenced to seventeen years in prison on charges of literature not approved by the state. The of “association with terrorists.” Fellow reli- government expanded its fierce campaign gious leader Imam Abduwahid Yuldashev, against independent Muslims in 2000 by who was conditionally released in 1999 after detaining, arresting, and torturing relatives of police torture, was rearrested on July 24, pious Muslims. Police regularly harassed and 2000. As of October 2000, he was still being threatened relatives of men convicted of reli- held incommunicado in a basement cell in gious offenses, while arresting the relatives of Tashkent and, like many others this year, had men being sought, and threatening to hold been denied legal representation. A lawyer them until the suspects turned themselves in who saw him in detention reported that police or were captured. Police arrested twenty- beat him with a truncheon in his presence to three-year-old Nilufar Hokimova and twenty- force him to turn down the lawyer’s services. one-year-old Nafisa Aboskhodjaeva, who Investigators were reportedly preparing to were sentenced to six years in prison for charge Imam Nazarov’s former deputy with “Wahabism” and alleged anti-state activity “Wahabism” and “spreading jihad ideas.” when they attempted to leave the country The police practice of planting narcotics following the arrest, torture, and conviction and a small number of bullets on observant of their husbands. Authorities compelled Muslim detainees was replaced in part by a female relatives to sign documents attesting new pattern in which police planted banned that they did not attend any illegal gatherings religious leaflets on independent Muslims, and placed many under a form of house arrest charging them with opposing the constitution during holidays and elections. Police and local and participating in unregistered religious authorities also organized “hate rallies” remi- activities. Some detainees were sent to prison niscent of the Stalin era, in which hundreds of for up to twenty years on such charges. neighbors and officials gathered to denounce Members of Hizb ut-Tahrir claimed some publicly relatives of pious Muslims as trai- 4,000 of their co-religionists had been ar- tors and “enemies of the state” and to demand rested since late 1998, the majority in 1999. a vow of contrition. Among those subjected Human Rights Watch and other rights groups to this treatment were relatives of the well- documented the conviction of several hun- known independent Imam Obidhon Qori dred members of the group in 2000 for engag- Nazarov, who was believed to have gone into ing in unsanctioned meetings, teaching reli- UZBEKISTAN 333 gion and praying in private, and possession were an estimated 100,000 wrongfully jailed and distribution of literature not cleared by Muslim prisoners and allow for the obser- state censors. vance of Islamic law precepts, including per- Citizens of Uzbekistan were once again mission for Muslim women to wear the veil. denied their right to endeavor to participate in There were credible allegations of viola- the political system and to change their gov- tions of humanitarian law by all parties to the ernment peacefully. Parliamentary elections conflict. IMU militants were accused of held in December 1999 and presidential elec- taking foreign civilians hostage, including at tions in January 2000 were neither free nor least one German citizen later released and fair. No genuine opposition political parties four United States citizens who escaped after were registered, there was no opportunity to six days of captivity. Armed insurgents air views via the mass media, and no possibil- allegedly killed at least one Kyrgyz soldier ity to exercise freedom of assembly or asso- whom they took prisoner. Other Kyrgyz and ciation. An Organization for Security and Uzbek soldiers were also captured by the Cooperation in Europe/Office of Democratic militants, but no reliable information was Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ available regarding the conditions of their ODIHR) mission sent to Uzbekistan to as- confinement. sess the pre-election environment in the run Fighting continued in southeastern up to the parliamentary race declared that Uzbekistan and sporadically in areas closer to conditions “fell short of the OSCE commit- the capital until mid-September. Uzbek au- ments for democratic elections,” citing inad- thorities brought in heavy artillery and initi- equate laws and regulations, direct govern- ated a campaign of aerial bombardments from ment interference in the election process, and helicopters. Authorities insisted that the the absence of fundamental freedoms as among target areas had been cleared of civilians, who the obstacles. Agence France-Presse reported were evacuated to nearby towns away from that President Karimov said after the vote, the battle zone. However, there were reports “The OSCE focuses only on establishment of of civilians fleeing fighting in the southeastern democracy, the protection of human rights region of Surkhandarya and concerns regard- and the freedom of the press. I am now ing the indiscriminate nature of the aerial questioning these values.” bombardments. Hundreds of mountain resi- In January 2000, Soviet-style presiden- dents were displaced by the conflict in south- tial elections made a mockery of the demo- eastern Uzbekistan and thousands fled the cratic system. President Karimov claimed fighting in Kyrgyzstan. support from 91.9 percent of the electorate, Landmines allegedly laid by Uzbek which included a vote from his nominal oppo- troops posed a danger to mountain residents. nent in the race. The U.S. government de- In at least one incident, two women were clared the election “neither free nor fair” and reportedly killed and two others injured when said it “offered Uzbekistan’s voters no true they stepped on a landmine that had been choice.” The OSCE abstained from sending placed near the Uzbek-Tajik border by the observers because of the lack of competition. Uzbek military. Tajik officials reported that A violent challenge to Karimov’s rule landmines killed eight civilians and wounded came in early August 2000 when pitched five others in the area in September. battles erupted between armed insurgents Uzbekistan had not signed the international and government troops in southeastern treaty to ban landmines. Uzbekistan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan. In November 1999, a shoot-out in the Tohir Yuldash, political leader of the so- forest of the Iangiabad region outside Tashkent called Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan left over a dozen gunmen and at least three (IMU), claimed responsibility for the at- security officers dead. Government authori- tacks. The IMU demanded that the Uzbek ties claimed that the armed men were terror- government release what the group claimed ists who opened fire on police officers who 334 UZBEKISTAN stumbled upon their hideout. None of the reports of deaths in custody from torture in gunmen survived the exchange. At least prisons. In the infamous Jaslyk prison doz- fourteen other men were tried for alleged ties ens of inmates reportedly died from mistreat- to the gunmen and were charged with con- ment and disease. There were several shock- spiracy to commit terrorism, participation in ing reports of torture causing the death of an illegal groups, and “infringement of the detainees and prisoners. Jaloliddin Sodiqjonov constitutional order,” and were given lengthy was among those who reportedly died in terms in prison. Defendant Polvanazar custody from abuse by prison authorities this Khodjaev, whose father died of torture in year, as was Numon Saidaminov. Convicted prison in 1999, was sentenced to death. independent Muslims who allegedly died of Police tortured defendants in detention and beatings by prison guards included Maraim arrested some of their relatives on fabricated Alikulov, Usmanali Khamrikulov, Rustam charges as part of a stated government policy Norbaev, Nemat Karimov, and Shukhrat of collective punishment. Bahodir Hasanov, Parpiev. Police would not allow relatives to the brother of one defendant, was arrested on view Khimatullo Khudoiberdiev’s body to July 17 and held incommunicado in a base- determine cause of death. Suspicion also ment cell for forty-one days, as of October. surrounded the deaths of Abduaziz Rasulov, Police held detainees incommunicado whom police claimed hanged himself in his for up to six months, regularly denying sus- cell, and Dilmurad Umarov, whom authori- pects access to an attorney until after the state ties ruled died of tuberculosis but whose body had obtained a confession. Police and court- showed signs of abuse. house guards demanded bribes from relatives Prison conditions were harsh, with pris- who wanted to give detainees food and medi- oners routinely denied adequate food, medi- cine or sought to attend their relatives’ trials. cine, and sanitary facilities. Authorities did Torture remained routine and new meth- not inform relatives of prisoners’ where- ods of abuse were reported in 2000. In abouts for months at a time, and guards addition to hundreds of reports of beatings demanded bribes for deliveries of food and and numerous accounts of the use of electric other necessities. Prison officials often arbi- shock, temporary suffocation, hanging by the trarily extended inmates’ sentences on false ankles or wrists, removal of fingernails, and charges of infractions. Muslim prisoners punctures with sharp objects, Human Rights who prayed were punished with beatings and Watch received credible reports in 2000 that solitary confinement. Untreated illness led police sodomized male detainees with bottles, to the deaths of dozens of prisoners, including raped them, and beat and burned them in the Usman Inagamov, a member of Hizb ut- groin area. Male and female detainees were Tahrir who died of cancer in custody after regularly threatened with rape. Police made reportedly being turned in to police by official such threats in particular against female de- islamic authorities. Authorities continued to tainees in the presence of male relatives to deny international monitors access to prison force the men to sign self-incriminating state- and detention facilities. ments. Police also regularly threatened to An amnesty decree issued by President murder detainees or their family members and Karimov in September 2000 provided for the to place minor children in orphanages. Self- release of certain categories of prisoners, but incriminating testimony obtained through tor- excluded persons convicted of “anti-consti- ture was routinely admitted by judges, who tutional activity,” a charge systematically cited this as evidence, often the only evidence, levied against observant independent Mus- to convict. Courts did not initiate investiga- lims. In a positive move, higher courts com- tions into allegations of mistreatment by muted the death sentences of several persons police. convicted of nonpolitical crimes. However, Torture and ill-treatment in prisons was government officials acknowledged that they rampant, and there were several shocking carried out executions of several Muslims UZBEKISTAN 335 convicted of involvement in a February 1999 they used a confidential list of Afghan refu- bombing incident. The government did not gees awaiting placement in a third country to release statistics on the total number of people track the refugees down and demand that they executed. sign a document agreeing to leave the country The September 1999 release of six Chris- within five days or else face arrest and depor- tian prisoners was viewed by some outside tation. At least ten individuals were threat- policy makers as a sign of liberalization in ened in the first days of the door-to-door Uzbekistan’s treatment of Christian groups. campaign. One man who feared torture if However, the end of the year and following returned to Afghanistan reportedly went into months saw several brutal and dramatic at- hiding after police threatened him. UNHCR tacks on Christian believers. In October later reported that twelve refugees were placed 1999, police in the city of Karshi raided a under house arrest for one week, but that the church meeting held by an unregistered group “misunderstanding” was resolved with yet of Baptists. Officers detained participants in another verbal agreement between the agency the Baptist harvest celebration, including and the government. Uzbekistan had not minor children. Police beat and tortured signed the 1951 Convention relating to the participants in detention and sentenced two Status of Refugees, but is still bound by of them to ten days in prison and payment of obligations under international customary a fine. Despite assurances that such viola- law not to return refugees to a country where tions would not be repeated, police continued their life and freedom could be threatened. to harass and detain Christians, and none of Research conducted by Human Rights the officers involved in the Karshi incident Watch in 2000 revealed that police discour- were disciplined. On May 14, 2000, Tashkent aged women who were abused by their hus- police temporarily detained ten Baptists in bands or other family members from filing Tashkent for conducting a private prayer reports and failed to investigate and punish meeting. abusers when reports were made. Local Christians who engaged in what was authorities pressured women to remain in perceived as missionary activity, including abusive households and attempted to dis- distribution of imported literature, were re- suade women from pursuing divorce. portedly detained and mistreated by police, The International Helsinki Federation who carried out the government’s harsh law issued a report in June 2000 citing a lack of criminalizing proselytism. State authorities official concern as one of the causes for the put Uzbeks who convert under particularly growth of trafficking of women in Uzbekistan. severe pressure. Several foreign nationals The report noted that Uzbek law did not accused of proselytism were denied permis- specifically refer to trafficking of humans as sion to return to the country. Police report- a crime and that the abduction of girls often edly subjected members of the Jehovah’s went unreported. A U.N.-sponsored confer- Witnesses to arbitrary harassment, including ence held in March 2000 in Tashkent cited repeated interrogations and fines for illegal trafficking in humans as one of the sources of religious activity. instability in the region. Despite the fanfare over his release from Children’s advocates reported that the prison in 1999, Pentecostal pastor Rashid trafficking of minor children for work in the Turibayev from the Autonomous Republic sex industry abroad continued. According to of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan was re- one local NGO, girls thirteen and fourteen ported in September 2000 to have gone into years old were provided with false passports hiding from state authorities. and sent to countries including the United In early July, Uzbek law enforcement Arab Emirates. The traffickers who arranged authorities reportedly violated a verbal agree- for the girls’ travel and placement in prosti- ment with representatives of the United Na- tution in the foreign location typically paid tions high commissioner for refugees when large bribes to Uzbek law enforcement offi- 336 UZBEKISTAN

cials who agreed to look the other way. Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) and Child victims of sexual and other physi- the Independent Human Rights Organization cal abuse by their families were reportedly of Uzbekistan (IHROU). The Supreme Court placed in state-run facilities together with failed to hear the appeals of rights defenders juveniles accused of committing crimes. Mahbuba Kasymova and Ismail Adylov, Authorities reportedly failed to provide for members of IHROU, who were jailed over a children’s basic needs, such as clothing and year ago for their human rights activities. soap, at the facilities. There were uncon- Adylov, who was released from the hospital firmed reports that guards at children’s facili- with a chronic kidney ailment just one week ties raped some of the children. Police denied before authorities took him into custody, was minors accused of violations of the state’s reported to be in poor physical condition. religion law access to legal representation. The human rights defender was missing in Authorities continued to deny access to custody for over thirty days in early 2000 secular education for observant Muslim stu- when officials transfered him to a distant dents who were expelled from schools and prison facility without notifying his family, universities since 1997 for wearing religious depriving them of the opportunity to give him dress. Efforts at reinstatement were unsuc- needed food and medicine. cessful in 2000. A student expelled from the Over a year after police illegally detained Women’s Medresseh (Islamic school) in and beat IHROU chairman Mikhail Ardzinov, Tashkent was detained just days later and law enforcement officials refused to return his beaten by police to force her to abandon her passport to him and continued to deny him religious attire. means of redress. His repeated complaints Freedom of expression continued to be and requests that a case be opened against his severely restricted, with essentially no inde- abusers was finally referred not to the state pendent press. All but two newspapers were prosecutor, but to the police station that government-owned and required approval houses the officers who detained and beat him from the Committee for the Control of State in 1999. Secrets for all published news articles. The The head of the HRSU, Tolib Iakubov, two private newspapers primarily published also reported that there were no known re- advertisements and horoscopes and did not sults from the Polish government’s investiga- cover news. Media watchdog Internews tion of a 1998 attack on him in Warsaw during reported increased pressure on privately the OSCE’s annual implementation meeting. owned television and radio stations from local The men who beat Iakubov in broad daylight, and national authorities. Government au- sending him to the hospital with severe inju- thorities closed or blacklisted stations that ries, have not been brought to justice. covered religion or politics and prevented Human rights activists in regions out- them from obtaining licenses. side the capital reported being subjected to While the majority of the country still police interrogation, threats, and extortion, as lacked access to the Internet, the Uzbek were victims of human rights abuse with government nevertheless placed restrictions whom they spoke. In one instance, the on its use, aiming to connect all Internet Akhmedov family of Andijan in the Ferghana service through government servers in 2000, Valley was threatened after meeting with thereby eliminating access to content the Human Rights Watch and police forcibly state deemed unacceptable and enabling the confiscated a copy of the Human Rights government to monitor citizens’ communica- Watch World Report 2000. Copies of the tions. report were also confiscated by police from a Human Rights Watch representative out- Defending Human Rights side a Syrdarya courthouse. Authorities again refused to register in- The activities of local and international dependent rights organizations, the Human rights defenders were seriously limited by UZBEKISTAN 337 authorities’ arbitrary denial of access to nomi- means to push for progress in human rights, nally open judicial hearings. the E.U. failed to use the instrument for that The Role of the International purpose in 2000. There were no human rights Community concessions in return for financial and trade benefits awarded under the agreement. More United Nations than a year after the PCA was signed, the E.U. Despite a scathing review from a team of and Uzbekistan had failed to set up a working independent consultants hired to assess the group on human rights and democracy, suc- work of the United Nations Development ceeding only in organizing a subcommittee on Programme (UNDP) in Uzbekistan, that U.N. finance and economy. As of October 2000, agency did not change course and refused to the E.U. had suspended indefinately the meet- implement the consultants’ recomendations, ings of the Cooperation Council under the including a suggestion that the agency issue a PCA. No explanation was given for this formal apology to the independent human move. rights community in Uzbekistan for exclud- Despite its failure to use the PCA for ing it from projects. The consultants also progress in human rights, the E.U. did go on called on UNDP to publish the report, show- the record with its dismay over Uzbekistan’s ing the agency’s past errors in order to avoid abysmal rights record. In January 2000 the repetition. Finally, the team called on the E.U., in keeping with its opposition to the UNDP to make good on its earlier pledge to death penalty, issued a press release con- fund the country’s first Legal Aid Society. demning the execution of six men accused of UNDP had contributed approximately U.S. terrorism following a grossly unfair trial. $2 million since 1997 to the Uzbek During the meeting of the U.N. Commission government’s human rights initiatives, in- on Human Rights in Geneva, the E.U. spoke cluding the Authorized Person for Human out against ongoing repression in Uzbekistan. Rights in the Parliament (ombudsman) and The E.U. also used the forum of the OSCE the National Human Rights Center. Permanent Council to voice dissatisfaction Other U.N. agencies, including the spe- with the presidential elections in Uzbekistan. cial rapporteur on torture and the working group on arbitrary arrests and disappear- Organization for Security and ances, sent communications to Uzbekistan Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) regarding individual cases. After finding that earlier OSCE recom- A U.N. representative from Tashkent mendations had not been implemented and monitored the appeals trial of Komoliddin that conditions for a pluralist and competitive Sattarov, but no public comment came from parliamentary race had not been met, the the U.N. regarding the young man, who was OSCE withheld the assignment of formal beaten and tortured with electric shock and election observers but dispatched a limited then sentenced to nine years in prison, partly assessment mission to examine the pre-elec- on the grounds that he wrote a complaint to tion environment that condemned the parlia- the U.N. Human Rights Committee on behalf mentary elections as falling below OSCE of his arrested brother. An Uzbek municipal standards. The organization abstained from court had listed the complaint as part of the monitoring presidential elections on the incriminating evidence against Sattarov. Dur- grounds that conditions for a free and fair ing retrial, a district court made no mention of election were absent. the complaint but sentenced him to fifteen In apparent reaction to criticism from years. the Karimov government regarding OSCE activities on human rights issues, the organi- European Union zation emphasized economic and security After having lauded a coveted Partner- interests, sometimes to the seeming exclusion ship and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) as a of rights advocacy. The new OSCE chair, 338 UZBEKISTAN/FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero- million in counterterrorism and border secu- Waldner, visited Uzbekistan in June and was rity assistance. able to meet with representatives of local or Just months later, as respect for reli- international human rights groups or leading gious freedom further deteriorated and hun- local rights defenders. Human rights were dreds more Muslims were sent to jail for their reportedly not given high priority in her beliefs and practices, Secretary Albright failed discussions with government officials, which to name Uzbekistan as a country of particular were concluded with the signing of a bilateral concern in the area of religious freedom under investment agreement between Austria and the 1998 International Religious Freedom Uzbekistan. When some seventeen OSCE Act. The State Department’s Annual Report ambassadors and representatives of delega- on International Religious Freedom, issued tions visited Uzbekistan in July, the officials pursuant to the act, emphasized minor im- spent the majority of their time in the ancient provements in the treatment of Christians, city of Samarkand and did not meet with although Christians suffered violent govern- rights defenders during their half-day stay in ment attacks and continued police harass- the nation’s capital. Meetings with the gov- ment, and characterized the crackdown on ernment reportedly focused on security and Muslims as political and not religious repres- economic cooperation. sion, leaving the U.S. government free to give The OSCE/Central Asia Liaison Office Uzbekistan a relatively positive rating in one (CALO) actively engaged authorities on the of the most shockingly poor areas of its rights subject of prison access for international record. monitors. Staff members continued their Some members of Congress took a tough program of trial monitoring in the country and stand against the flagrant abuses by reported their findings internally. On several Uzbekistan and sharply criticized its rights occasions authorities barred CALO staff from record. attending nominally open court hearings. The OSCE/CALO sponsored several Relevant Human Rights Watch training workshops in Uzbekistan. A human Reports: rights training seminar was offered for expe- Leaving no Witnesses: Uzbekistan’s Cam- rienced activists from human rights groups, paign Against Rights Defenders, 3/00 members of other nongovernmental organiza- tions, and employees of the government’s human rights bureaucracy. Another training session held by the OSCE/CALO aimed at FEDERAL introducing members of the judiciary, includ- ing prosecutors, judges, and lawyers, to inter- REPUBLIC OF national human rights standards. YUGOSLAVIA United States In April 2000, Secretary of State Serbia and Montenegro Madeleine Albright visited Uzbekistan and urged President Karimov to make a distinc- Human Rights Developments tion between peaceful Muslim believers and Efforts by indicted Yugoslav President terrorists. During her visit, Secretary Albright Slobodan Milosevic to remain in power deci- stated, “It’s necessary that the government of sively shaped the human rights situation in Uzbekistan distinguishes very carefully be- 2000. The Milosevic-dominated federal par- tween peaceful devout believers and those liament amended the Yugoslav constitution who advocate terrorism.” Before she left in July to restrict Montenegro’s autonomy Uzbekistan, however, Secretary Albright and allow another presidential term for awarded the government with some U.S. $3 Milosevic. In the September 24 federal elec- FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA 339 tions, which the Montenegrin government State Security agents or thugs employed by boycotted, the opposition candidate Vojislav the government, beat and harassed regime Kostunica defeated Milosevic in the presi- opponents on a number of occasions. On dential contest. By manipulating the federal February 26, in Belgrade, they beat student election commission and federal constitu- Milos Dosen who they found taking down a tional court, Milosevic attempted to force a poster attacking Otpor (Resistance), an anti- second round of the election. The opposition government group mostly comprised of uni- responded with a series of mass rallies. On versity students; on April 11, in Novi Sad, October 5, opposition supporters stormed two unidentified men beat Radoje Cvetkov, the parliament and occupied Serbian state secretary for urbanism in the Novi Sad Execu- television. Two days later Milosevic con- tive Council, which is controlled by the op- ceded electoral defeat, and Kostunica was position; persons in civilian clothes raided inaugurated. Otpor headquarters in Belgrade on September Leading opposition politicians faced ha- 9, forcing Otpor activists to the floor while rassment and persecution throughout the searching the office. There was no indication year. In February, the public prosecutor that police investigated any of these cases. indicted Dusan Mihailovic, president of the The authorities prevented the opposi- New Democracy Party, for “spreading false tion from staging rallies or used force to information” when he publicly criticized a disperse them. On November 9, 1999, police Milosevic speech. On February 29, Belgrade forces in Belgrade used excessive force to police detained and interrogated Ivan disperse some 2,500 students demanding Kovacevic, the Serbian Renewal Movement early parliamentary elections in Serbia. Po- spokesman and member of Serbian parlia- lice stopped buses with opposition support- ment. Zarko Korac, leader of the Social ers traveling to rallies in Belgrade (April 14) Democratic Party, was beaten by unknown and Pozarevac (May 9). On May 17-18, the assailants in early March. Jan Svetlik, oppo- police used excessive force to disperse Belgrade sition councilor in Zrenjanin constituency, street protests and beat protesters and passers- was abducted on April 5 by two unknown by for hours after the protests. assailants and kept out of town during an Beginning in June 2000, in the run-up to important local parliamentary vote before the September elections, police were increas- being released unharmed. Momcilo Perisic, ingly involved in the beating of opposition retired Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff and an activists and members of Otpor. Thirty opposition leader, was stripped of his mili- beating incidents were reported between June tary rank in August. and August and ten more in the first week of On June 15, unknown persons shot at September. In one case, the police in Vladicin Serbian Renewal Movement leader Vuk Han tortured six Otpor activists for three Draskovic from the terrace outside his apart- hours, hitting them in their genitals, head, ment in Budva, Montenegro. One bullet kidneys, and feet. In May and June, the police grazed Draskovic’s head. In the ensuing detained and interrogated 500 Otpor activists investigation, the Serbian Ministry of Inte- on the unfounded charge of “terrorism.” rior refused to surrender two key witnesses In purges of the judiciary carried out in to the Montenegrin police. Two weeks December 1999 and July 2000, the authori- before the assassination attempt in Budva, ties removed from their posts two judges of the police at Belgrade Airport had arrested the Supreme Court of Serbia, one judge of the and disarmed Draskovic’s entire security Constitutional Court, and seventeen judges staff. Vuk Draskovic had survived a car of district, municipal, and commercial courts. accident on October 3, 1999, which many Presidents of the courts in Serbia, elected by believe was staged by the Serbian Security the government-dominated Serbian parlia- Service. ment, assigned politically sensitive cases to Unidentified groups of men, apparently “politically reliable” judges who were ex- 340 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

pected to render decisions favorable to the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), the Yugoslav authorities, and did so. Left (JUL), and the Serbian Radical Party Most victims of unfair trials were (SRS). Belgrade authorities closed down or Kosovars, taken from the columns of fleeing disrupted the signals of a number of indepen- civilians during the war with NATO and dent and opposition-controlled television and charged after the war with seditious con- radio stations. Police removed relay links and spiracy and terrorism. In most cases courts essential transmission equipment from the based the convictions on confessions ex- transmission facilities of radio and television torted through police torture or on the noto- stations in Pozarevac, Cuprija, Pozega, Pirot, riously unreliable paraffin test for gunpow- Kraljevo, Mladenovac, and Cacak. After der, allegedly showing that the person had disrupting its signal for eight months, the used arms. In one such case, the district court government took over the Belgrade Radio- in Nis collectively sentenced 143 ethnic Al- Television Studio B. Radio B2-92, which banians from Djakovica to sentences of be- broadcast from the Studio B premises, was tween seven and thirteen years of imprison- also taken off the air. ment. Flora Brovina, poet and physician With the focus of repression shifting to from Pristina, was accused of providing medi- the Serbian opposition, the Milosevic regime’s cal supplies to members of the Kosovo Lib- harassment of ethnic minorities subsided eration Army and sentenced in December slightly. Yet tensions in Bujanovac, Medvedja, 1999 to twelve years in prison for “terror- and Presevo, municipalities bordering Kosovo ism.” On July 10, the district court in Belgrade and inhabited mostly by ethnic Albanians, sentenced six Albanian Belgrade University remained high during the year. Elsewhere in students to harsh prison sentences on a charge Serbia, incidents against Roma received most of “preparing terrorist acts.” The verdict was attention. On June 7, police leveled Roma based on apparently planted evidence and homes in a Belgrade settlement built in breach confessions extorted by beating, the threat of of zoning laws; during the action, the police murder, and mock executions. hurled racial insults at the Roma and slapped The authorities have continued to use and kicked some of them. Roma were not penal sanctions since the 1999 war to prevent allowed to enter the swimming pool in Sabac, public debate on war crimes committed by owned by the president of the local branch of security forces against ethnic Albanians. On the ruling Serbian Radical Party. Romani men July 26, a closed-door Yugoslav military working for a street cleaning company in court sentenced journalist Miroslav Filipovic Belgrade were frequent victims of attacks by to seven years in prison for publishing racist “skinhead” youth. articles on the Internet in 2000 about the The presence of some 230,000 persons crimes. In August, the Yugoslav Army threat- displaced after the Kosovo conflict and ened Natasa Kandic, a leading Yugoslav hu- 500,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia man rights activist and director of the Hu- continued to strain the resources of Serbia and manitarian Law Center, with prosecution and Montenegro. UNHCR announced in August trial because of her August 2000 statements that it would decrease aid to provide accom- about war crimes committed by the security modation for refugees and the displaced from forces. U.S. $65.6 million to $58.6 million. Misdemeanor judges, appointed and controlled by the government, continued im- Defending Human Rights posing the payment of heavy financial pen- Nongovernmental organizations in alties on numerous independent media for Serbia were extraordinarily active in 2000, “libelous” statements or reports, on the basis and the regime responded with unprecedented of the Public Information Act. In almost all harassment. The Humanitarian Law Center cases, those recovering damages were mem- and Yugoslav Committee for Human Rights bers of the three ruling parties in Serbia—the represented numerous individuals in political FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA 341 trials. These groups, along with Group 484, Organization for Security and Women in Black, and the Belgrade Center for Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Human Rights, also developed a network of Efforts by the OSCE to monitor the trial monitors who reported extensively about human rights situation were unequivocally the trials of ethnic Albanians and other vic- rejected by the Federal Republic of Yugosla- tims of government repression. Government via, which was suspended from OSCE mem- representatives and media repeatedly accused bership in July 1992. OSCE Representative human rights groups of working for foreign on Freedom of Media Freimut Duve defended intelligence agencies. In a campaign of intimi- independent media, but his activities were dation, initiated in May, financial inspectors branded “terrorism and a crime against sover- accompanied by regular and secret police eign state” by Federal Information Minister visited the offices of six leading organizations Goran Matic, and Duve was accused of being for a purported financial inspection. The a “German agent” by Minister of Telecom- police interrogated numerous activists about munications Ivan Markovic. their daily activities and confiscated docu- The OSCE Office for Democratic Insti- ments unrelated to financial matters. OnJuly tutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in 7-8, State Security Police tortured Bojan Montenegro monitored the June 11 early Aleksov, a human rights activist and consci- municipal elections in Podgorica and Herceg entious objector who had been studying in Novi and found that the elections were well Budapest for two years and was arrested conducted and generally in line with OSCE while visiting Belgrade. In August the police commitments. In a report released on August banned the Council for Human Rights, a 30, ODIHR concluded that the legislation prominent human rights group from Leskovac, governing the September 24 elections did not justifying the move on the basis of the council’s accord with international standards or OSCE “engagement in political activities.” commitments. Yugoslav authorities an- nounced earlier that they would not permit The Role of the International ODIHR experts to observe the elections. On Community October 19, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Benita Fererro-Waldner invited the Federal United Nations Republic of Yugoslavia to join the OSCE as The Commission on Human Rights, in a a participating state. resolution passed in April, expressed grave concern at the ongoing serious violations of European Union human rights by the Serbian and Yugoslav The E.U. took some steps to alleviate authorities, as well as at the failure of Belgrade the impact of economic sanctions against to cooperate with the International Criminal Serbia on ordinary citizens opposing the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The Milosevic’s government. Between Novem- commission welcomed positive trends in ber 1999 and April 2000, the European Com- Montenegro toward democratic and economic mission conducted the program, “Energy for reforms. U.N. Special Rapporteur for Hu- Democracy,” delivering 17,513 tons of fuel man Rights in the Former Yugoslavia Jiri oil to seven cities governed by the Serbian Dienstbier repeatedly protested the repres- opposition. The Belgrade authorities ini- sion against the opposition, students, and the tially blocked delivery of the E.U. assistance independent media in Serbia. He also called to opposition towns, but Belgrade eventually for the lifting of international sanctions against abandoned the unpopular measures. In July, FRY. Dienstbier visited the country in March however, Yugoslav authorities denied import and June and during the election crisis in licenses to a number of firms exempted from September and October. The commission the E.U. trade and investment embargo. The extended the special rapporteur’s mandate commission also provided urgent aid to the for one year. media and nongovernmental organizations 342 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

harassed by the government. The E.U. con- the Former Yugloslavia. tinued to support the democratic transition in Montenegro. On May 22, 2000, the General Kosovo Affairs Council committed 20 million euros (U.S. $19.2 million) in assistance to the Human Rights Developments Montenegrin government. On October 9, the Despite the efforts of the United Na- E.U. lifted the oil embargo and the ban on tions civilian administration and a massive international flights to and from Yugoslavia. North Atlantic Treay Organization (NATO) Financial and trade restrictions against firms presence, human rights in Kosovo frequently and individuals connected to the Milosevic remained an abstraction during 2000. Ethnic regime remained in place, along with the visa minorities were hardest hit, with continuing ban and freeze of assets belonging to these violence against the province’s Serb, Roma, individuals. Muslim Slav, Gorani, and Turkish popula- tions, and the Albanian minority living in Council of Europe northern Mitrovica town. At the time of this The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s writing, municipal elections were scheduled application for admission to the Council of for October 28, despite the absence of condi- Europe remained suspended from consider- tions for their free and fair conduct and against ation. Council of Europe officials issued con- a backdrop of rising political violence among demnations of the crackdown on independent Albanian Kosovar parties and a Serb boycott. media and the opposition and called for free Efforts to establish rule of law and to end and fair elections. In July the Council of impunity were hampered by shortcomings in Europe secretary general appointed Eva Tomic the nascent justice system, and inadequate as his special representative to be based in the and incompetent policing. The NATO-led OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Kosovo Force (KFOR) and its member gov- Human Rights in Podgorica. Tomic was ernments were reluctant to take decisive ac- tasked to provide expert assistance to the tion against elements of the former Kosovo Montenegrin authorities in reforming educa- Liberation Army (KLA) linked to attacks on tion, local self-administration, and the judicial minorities and political opponents. Despite system and in drafting legislation. progress in identifying the fate of missing persons, more than 3,000 remained unac- United States counted for from last year’s armed conflict, On June 29, 2000, U.S. Ambassador to most of them ethnic Albanians. the U.N. Richard Holbrooke announced a For the most part confined to mono- campaign to exclude FRY from membership ethnic enclaves and unable to travel without in the U.N. Although to a lesser extent than KFOR escorts, the situation of minorities in the E.U., the United States tried to alleviate Kosovo remained extremely precarious. Few the impact of sanctions on some sectors of the of the more than 150,000 non-Albanians who Serbian population. After an April 7 meeting fled from Kosovo since June 1999 attempted in Washington, D.C., with the mayors of eight to return. Roma and especially Serbs contin- major Serbian municipalities controlled by ued to bear the brunt of much of the violence. the opposition, Secretary of State Madeleine Ethnic Croats, Muslim Slavs (including Albright announced that the U.S. would ap- Torbesh), Gorani, and Turks also faced at- prove aid for improving health care, public tacks, harassment, and pressure to leave their services, education, and environmental pro- homes. Although far fewer murders and tection in cities run by the democratic oppo- kidnapings took place in 2000 than in 1999, sition. The U.S. exempted Montenegro from minorities continued to be disproportion- sanctions and provided an estimated $77 ately affected. On February 2, Josip Vasic, a million in aid during the year. On October 12, prominent doctor and moderate member of the U.S. lifted its oil embargo and flight ban to the Serb National Council, was shot dead in FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA 343 a Gnjilane street by unknown assailants. On to balance free expression against curbs on April 3, Metodije Halauska, an eighty-six- speech inciting hatred and violence. The prac- year-old ethnic Czech man, was kidnaped tice of publishing the names of alleged Serb from his home in Pristina, beaten, and shot in war criminals in Kosovo newspapers, redo- the back of the head. A seventy-year-old lent of the notorious lists published in the Bosniak woman in Pec was hospitalized the Croatian region of Eastern Slavonia, drew same month after being beaten in the street by condemnation from UNMIK and the OSCE, fifteen Albanian men. On May 15, the body but international efforts against hate speech, of twenty-five-year-old Serb translator Petar including the appointment of a temporary Topoljski was found in the village of media commissioner with wide powers and Rimaniste, near Pristina. Topoljski had gone the temporary closure of Dita after it repeat- missing a week earlier from his job with the edly published inflammatory allegations United Nations Mission in Kosovo against Serbs, were criticized by Kosovo (UNMIK), after his name and movements Albanian journalists and international press were published in the Kosovo daily newspa- freedom groups as an attack on free speech. per Dita, together with allegations that he was The divided town of Mitrovica remained a Serb paramilitary who had participated in a flash-point for inter-ethnic conflict. Some of the mass expulsions of Albanians from the the worst violence in the town followed a province. February 2 rocket attack on a UNHCR bus The weeks surrounding the first anni- under KFOR escort traveling to Mitrovica versary of NATO’s entry into Kosovo on from the Serb village of Banja in which two June 12 saw an upsurge in violence against elderly Serbs were killed and three wounded. minorities in the province. A series of grenade The attack sparked a wave of tit-for-tat inter- and landmine attacks and drive-by shootings ethnic violence in northern Mitrovica that left targeting Serbs left eleven dead and more than eight non-Serbs dead and led 1,700 Albanians, a dozen wounded. Valentina Cukic, an editor Turks, and Muslim Slavs to flee their homes. of a Serbian-language program of the multi- The prospects for a lasting solution to the ethnic Radio Kontakt, was shot and badly town’s status remained dim. Violence against wounded in Pristina June 20, together with Albanians was not confined to Mitrovica. her companion, while wearing her KFOR The murder of two Albanians in the village of press identification. On July 12, a Serbian Cubrelj by a group of Serbs on June 12, the Orthodox priest and two seminary students first anniversary of the end of war, echoed the were wounded in a drive-by shooting near the persecution of Albanians a year earlier. village of Klokot. In a sinister development in Much of the violence against Albanians, August, minority children were targeted: on however, occurred at the hands of other August 18, a grenade was thrown from a Albanians. The murder of a politician from moving car into a group of children at a the Democratic League of Kosovo, the party basketball court in the Serb village of Crkvena headed by Ibrahim Rugova and known by its Vodica leaving ten wounded. On August 27, Albanian acronym, LDK, and the kidnaping an Albanian man drove his car into a group of and interrogation of another in the Drenica children in the same village before fleeing the region in November 1999 was followed by a scene, killing one child and wounding three. spate of execution-style killings of prominent An eighty-year-old Serb farmer from the KLA fighters. Although the killings were same village was shot dead later the same day. frequently attributed to rivalries among orga- On September 14, a forty-five-year-old Serb nized crime figures, some of the murders, woman was shot dead at her home in Kamenica. including the killing in May of a politically A sixty-year-old Serb shepherd reported moderate former KLA commander, Ekrem missing was discovered dead near Strpce on Rexha (known as Commander “Drini”), had October 4, with gunshot wounds to the body. a political dimension. The international community struggled Political violence increased over the sum- 344 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

mer. On June 15 Alil Dresaj, a senior LDK offers of lucrative jobs; the women found politician, was shot dead by persons wearing themselves trapped in forced prostitution in insignia of the former KLA. On July 7, brothels around the province. Ramush Haradinaj, a politician and former senior KLA commander, was wounded in the Defending Human Rights village of Streoce during what appears to have Restrictions on freedom of movement, been a shootout. On July 12, a close aide to inter-ethnic animosity, and the legacy of a Haradinaj was murdered. The burned corpse decade of repression and armed conflict im- of Shaban Manaj, a senior LDK official, was paired human rights work by local nongov- discovered on August 6 in a remote village. He ernmental organizations in Kosovo. The Hu- had been kidnaped on July 27. Attacks di- manitarian Law Center largely restricted its rected against the LDK continued in August. activities to monitoring the issue of missing On August 1, an LDK activist was shot and persons and prisoners. Reports by the Coun- wounded in Podujevo. The head of the LDK cil for the Defense of Human Rights and in Srbica was wounded in a shooting the Freedoms were frequently politicized and following day. The wife of an LDK official sometimes limited to abuses against Alba- died in an explosion at their home in Dragash nians and those committed by Serbs. Interna- on August 9. Several LDK offices were at- tional human rights groups were mostly able tacked during the same month. Political to carry out investigations unhindered, al- motives were also suspected in the Septem- though the highly variable security situation ber murders of Shefki Popova and Rexhep in Mitrovica and some minority enclaves Luci, two prominent Albanians with close sometimes limited or preventd access. Local ties to the LDK. Popova, a veteran journalist organizations protested freely and often about with Albanian-language daily Rilindija and the fate of Kosovo Albanian prisoners in Luci, head of Kosovo’s housing and recon- Serbian jails. struction department, were gunned down on consecutive days. The Role of the International Despite the absence of “an atmosphere Community free of violence and intimidation” (an OSCE Kosovo remained a de facto interna- condition for free and fair elections), the tional protectorate during 2000, administered international community pressed ahead with by UNMIK, with security provided by its plans to hold municipal elections, at the NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers and United time of writing, scheduled for October 28. Nations police and financed primarily by the While most eligible Albanians registered to European Union and United States govern- vote, Serbs, Muslim Slavs, and other minori- ments and the World Bank. Yugoslavia had ties boycotted registration, citing lack of little influence on events in the province security, thus rendering them ineligible to outside the Serb-dominated municipalities vote. As if to confirm their reservations, a north of Mitrovica. The international bomb exploded on August 18 in a Pristina community’s policies toward Kosovo pulled building housing the offices of smaller Alba- in contradictory directions: expected munici- nian, Turkish, and Bosniak political parties, pal elections aimed to increase local self- as well as the Yugoslav representation in government for Kosovo’s population, while Pristina. Despite the violence and concerns in the area of the courts and media, interna- that conditions were inadequate for free and tional involvement increased. Despite an fair elections, the body set up by the OSCE ongoing security gap for minorities, political to enforce standards during the election was violence, and growing crime, with elements of weak and lacked effective sanctions. former KLA and Kosovo Protection Corps The International Organization for Mi- clearly implicated, NATO and the U.N. re- gration in Kosovo reported that traffickers mained unable or unwilling to confront the had lured dozens of women to Kosovo with perpetrators in a decisive and consistent FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA 345 manner. government forces and the KLA.

United Nations Organization for Security and UNMIK made some progress in estab- Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) lishing transitional power structures and per- Charged with institution building, the suading most leading Albanian politicians and OSCE Mission in Kosovo performed well in some moderate Serb leaders to participate in the area of human rights training and monitor- them. Its international civilian police, tasked ing, producing accurate and public periodic both with policing the province and establish- reports with UNHCR on the difficulties ing a local Kosovo Police Service, remained faced by Kosovo’s minorities. Its lead role in under-equipped and often poorly trained and organizing municipal elections was less posi- faced difficulties obtaining cooperation from tive, with lessons from Bosnia regarding the local communities, judges, and prosecutors, need for basic conditions for free and fair and in some cases KFOR, with most cases left elections and enforcement of standards seem- unsolved or dropped before reaching the ingly ignored. The OSCE’s efforts to tackle courts. A case involving a Kenyan aid worker hate speech also drew criticism from press wrongly accused of fraud highlighted con- freedom groups and Kosovo Abanian jour- cerns about due process violations by U.N. nalists. police. The establishment in August of a special U.N. police unit for the protection of North Atlantic Treaty Organization Serbs was a more positive development. The NATO-led KFOR remained the Evidence of bias and intimidation in the na- most important security actor in Kosovo. scent local court system, and a lack of serving Despite some improvements, including a more judges from minorities led UNMIK to ac- mobile approach to protecting minorities knowledge that, as with the police, a greater pioneered by the British contingent, a reduc- degree of initial international supervision tion in the murder rate, more aggressive pur- would be necessary. Following the model of suit of illegal weapons, and an acknowledg- Mitrovica, UNMIK appointed international ment that attacks on minorities were orga- judges to some courts and transferred some nized, KFOR remained reluctant to confront sensitive cases involving minority or political the armed elements responsible for many of violence to those courts. On August 14, the the attacks. An uneven response to violence Polish human rights lawyer appointed by the among KFOR’s various national contingents, special representative of the secretary-gen- an inadequate response to attacks on Roma, eral in July as Kosovo’s first ombudsman and complaints about cooperation with U.N. made his first working visit to the province. police also cast a shadow on KFOR’s record. The ongoing detention of some 1,200 Kosovo Albanians in Serbia, as well as the lack of Council of Europe information about the fate of some 3,300 The Council of Europe and particularly missing persons from Kosovo, including 400 its Congress of Local and Regional Authori- Serbs and one hundred Roma, was highlighted ties continued its support for democratic by U.N. High Commissioner for Human institution building and human rights in Kosovo Rights Mary Robinson’s appointment, on through the council’s office in Pristina. In September 1, of a special envoy on persons July, the newly established council observa- deprived of liberty. In an April resolution, the tion mission began monitoring preparations U.N. Commission on Human Rights empha- for the municipal elections scheduled for sized the need for an independent judiciary October 28. and an end to inter-ethnic violence in Kosovo. The International Criminal Tribunal for the European Union Former Yugoslavia continued its investiga- European Union governments generally tions in Kosovo into crimes committed by showed a reluctance to move beyond the 346 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

condemnation of violence against minorities and toward tackling its causes. While showing more equivocation on early municipal elec- tions than the U.N. or U.S., leading E.U. states were nonetheless unwilling to call pub- licly for postponement. The European Union continued to finance much of the international effort in Kosovo, although there were re- newed criticisms of delays in the disburse- ment of promised aid by the European Com- mission.

United States The United States was willing to con- demn violence against minorities and even in June to acknowledge that such violence was systematic, but despite organizing a June conference of Albanian and Serb leaders out- side Washington, it showed far less willing- ness to expend the political capital or deploy its troops in KFOR in the manner necessary actually to improve security in the province. The laissez-faire approach of U.S. policy to Kosovo was most clearly manifest in its strong support for early elections in the province, its unwillingness to acknowledge publicly the involvement of KLA members in ethnic and political violence, and in the trial of the Momcilovic brothers, where the U.S. army withheld evidence that an Albanian man involved in an attack on the Momcilovic home had in fact been shot by U.S. troops and not by the Serb defendants, who spent a year in pretrial detention.

Relevant Human Rights Watch Reports: Curtailing Political Dissent: Serbia’s Cam- paign of Violence and Harassment Against Government’s Critics, 4/00 Kosovo: Rape as a Weapon of “Ethnic Cleans- ing,” 3/00 347 348