CONCERNS IN EUROPE July - December 1998 FOREWORD This bulletin contains information about Amnesty International’s main concerns in Europe between July and December 1998. Not every country in Europe is reported on: only those where there were significant developments in the period covered by the bulletin. The five Central Asian republics of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are included in the Europe Region because of their membership of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Reflecting the priority Amnesty International is giving to investigating and campaigning against human rights violations against women and children, the bulletin contains special sections on Women in Europe (p.66) and Children in Europe (p.70). A number of individual country reports have been issued on the concerns featured in this bulletin. References to these are made under the relevant country entry. In addition, more detailed information about particular incidents or concerns may be found in Urgent Actions and News Service Items issued by Amnesty International. This bulletin is published by Amnesty International every six months. References to previous bulletins in the text are: AI Index: EUR 01/02/98 Concerns in Europe: January - June 1998 AI Index: EUR 01/01/98 Concerns in Europe: July - December 1997 AI Index: EUR 01/06/97 Concerns in Europe: January - June 1997 AI Index: EUR 01/01/97 Concerns in Europe: July - December 1996 AI Index: EUR 01/02/96 Concerns in Europe: January - June 1996 Amnesty International March 1999 AI Index: EUR 01/01/99 2 Concerns in Europe: July - December 1998 ALBANIA Arrest and detention of former ministers and officials On 22 August police arrested six men in Tirana. Two of the men were ministers in the Democratic Party (DP) government which ruled Albania until the DP’s defeat in elections in June 1997 which followed the outbreak of unrest earlier that year. The other four men were DP members of parliament, police or military officers who held office during the time of the DP government. The arrest warrants for the men reportedly cited charges of violating the country’s “Genocide” law by “ordering the use of chemical weapons”, arming civilians and taking and giving orders which violated the constitution. These related to the authorities’ response to the unrest in 1997. The men were reportedly denied access to defence counsel during the initial stages of the investigations against them. At the end of December they were being held in house arrest. The death penalty; cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners In July a delegation of the Albanian Helsinki Committee visited Adem Bendaj, a prisoner who was sentenced to death in April 1998. Adem Bendaj was found wearing an iron helmet on his head and with his hands in chains. He reported that his feet had been bound until shortly before the delegation’s visit and that he had been kept chained for the previous five months. The practice of chaining prisoners had been applied under the old communist regime, reportedly as a method of preventing suicides, but was otherwise believed to have been discontinued following the introduction of a multi-party system in 1991. Other prisoners awaiting execution were reported to be kept in similar conditions. Amnesty International considered that the treatment of these prisoners amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Albania undertook to abolish the death penalty when it became a member of the Council of Europe in 1995. Its commitments were to implement an immediate moratorium on executions and to ratify within three years Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) which abolishes the death penalty. To Amnesty International’s knowledge no executions have been carried out since 1995. However, death sentences have regularly been passed and more than 24 men were reported to be under sentence of death by late 1998. Moreover, Albania failed to sign or ratify Protocol No. 6 by the end of 1998 and missed the deadline which it had committed itself to. ARMENIA UN Human Rights Committee reviews Armenia’s initial report On 26 October the UN Human Rights Committee reviewed Armenia’s initial report on the steps it had taken to implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Armenia acceded in 1993. Amnesty International had submitted its own report to the members of the Committee detailing its concerns about Armenia’s failure to implement fully its obligations under the covenant. The concerns included, among other things, the imprisonment of conscientious objectors who have not been offered any civilian alternative to compulsory military service; the alleged arbitrary detention of family members to force young men to report for conscription; continuing allegations of torture and ill-treatment in detention and in the army; and the criminalization of consensual homosexual relations between adult males. For further details see Armenia: Comments on the Initial Report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (AI Index: EUR 54/05/98). AI Index: EUR 01/01/99 Amnesty International March 1999 Concerns in Europe: July - December 1998 3 The Human Rights Committee commended Armenia for its current progress in bringing its legislation in line with its international obligations, and welcomed a proposal to establish the Office of Ombudsperson as well as Armenia’s expressed intention to abolish the death penalty by 1 January 1999 (see below). Among other things, however, the Committee expressed concern about allegations of torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials; about the poor conditions in prisons; and about discrimination against women in public and private employment and their under-representation in the conduct of public affairs. The Committee also expressed its regret at the lack of legal provision for an alternative service to compulsory military conscription for conscientious objectors, deploring the fact that they have been conscripted by force and that there have been instances of reprisal against their family members. The Committee noted also that the independence of the judiciary was not fully guaranteed, and that several provisions of the Armenian Constitution were not compatible with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Recommendations by the Human Rights Committee include the establishment of a special independent body to investigate complaints of torture and ill-treatment by law-enforcement personnel; the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners; the commutation of the death sentences of all persons currently on death row; and the adoption of specific preventive and punitive measures with respect to all forms of violence against women, including rape. The Committee also recommended human rights training for the legal profession and the judiciary, and urged Armenia to disseminate widely its initial report and the Committee’s concluding observations. While welcoming Armenia’s willingness to acknowledge problems during this transitional phase in the country’s history, Amnesty International strongly urged the government to implement fully and promptly the Committee’s recommendations thereby improving its human rights record. Prisoners of conscience (update to information given in AI Index: EUR 01/02/98) At the end of the period under review at least six young men remained imprisoned because their conscience led them into conflict with the law which makes military service compulsory for young males, and offers them no civilian alternative (see AI Index: 54/05/98). Moscow District Court in the city of Gyumri sentenced Karen Voskanian to three years’ imprisonment at the beginning of September, for evading military service under Article 257a of the military section of the Criminal Code. A Jehovah’s Witness, Karen Voskanian was taken to Mashtots District Military and Registration Enlistment Office (DMREO) at the beginning of March, and reportedly beaten there after he stated his inability to perform compulsory military service on religious grounds. He was then forcibly conscripted into a military unit in Gyumri, and charged when he refused to take the oath of military allegiance. Fellow Jehovah’s Witness Andranik Kosian was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on 29 October by Arabkir District Court in Yerevan, also under Article 257a. He too had been forcibly conscripted into a military unit, in Zod, and was said to have been subjected to severe beatings there when he refused to perform military service. Andranik Kosian, who reportedly suffers from heart problems, was first imprisoned for refusing his call up papers in March 1997, but was released from his 12-month sentence under an amnesty. A third Jehovah’s Witness tried during the period under review benefited from another amnesty, and was released from serving his sentence. Vardan Virabian had been given a two-year term by Khorhrdain District Court in Yerevan on 29 September, convicted under Article 75 of the Criminal Code for refusing his call up papers. This amnesty also benefitted co-religionist Tigran Petrosyan, who had been sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment in 1997 (see AI Index: EUR 54/01/98). He was released early on 26 October, but is said to have then gone into hiding to avoid continued harassment by conscription Amnesty International March 1999 AI Index: EUR 01/01/99 4 Concerns in Europe: July - December 1998 commission