Export of "Specially Designed" Torture Equipment Barred
3.5.96   Arm Sales Monitor FedAmScientists

11.6.00   Request for comments on foreign policy-based export controls incl EAR parts 742 CCL Based Controls … specially designed implements of torture (Sec. 742.11) ReDress re exports   ICL

Pentagon   pacifism   UN peacekeeping   refs

Michael E. Parmly Acting AsstSec Bureau of Democracy, HRts & Labor
2.26.01   HRts 2000 reports release
6.99 Principal officials, U.S. Embassy to France: Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs--Michael Parmly (#3)

House & Senate

5.13.99   W.Jinsheng Intl & Public Affairs School, Columbia Univ.NY democracy activist

Mandarin/English RealAudio (2733KB) 13:11

Who Is Wei Jingsheng? ¹
Fate of One Brave Worker Shows How Much Is At Stake
3.8.96   Robt A. Senser Commonweal

Beijing could live with strong intl criticism that followed, even while complaining about it, because massive infusion of trade, aid, loans, investment, and technology into the People's Republic continued unabated. Bonn, concluding business deals with Beijing, suggested Wei be released for exile in Germany. Wei, however, made clear he does not want to leave China. The Chinese govt might nevertheless force him into exile in return for some intl concession, such as favorable terms for China's entry into the World Trade Organization. It would be an outrage for Germany, or any other country, to collaborate in a deal that reduces Wei Jingsheng to a commercial bargaining chip. … banners of demonstrators in a pre-New Year march through Hong Kong streets had it right: "Today Wei Jingsheng, tomorrow you and me!" and "Fighting for democracy is no crime." … 15 activists from 4 provinces issued a public letter to China's national legislature appealing for the release of Wei & other political prisoners. At least 3 of the 15 were taken into police custody late in Dec. … U.S. Congress & British P0arliament nominated him for 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. …

"American products are helping make China's repressive machine more efficient" … continued renewal of MFN for China seems assured, because U.S. business interests share richly in those benefits. People's Republic ranks 3rd from top among nations in volume of UN sponsored development aid it receives; its $23billion in low-interest loan commitments from the World Bank make China the Bank's heaviest borrower. As the Wall St Journal has correctly pointed out, "these [international] resources are funneled through China's central govt, strengthening its purse and its power over Chinese citizens."
China is so flush with foreign funds that it can now divert some to shore up the power of kindred govts. In Dec. Beijing's newly established Export-Import Bank, as its first project, granted $12million in preferential loans to Sudan's military govt. As its 2nd project, it signed $520million contract to overhaul Nigeria's railway system and provide it with new locomotives. On the day when the People's Court sentenced Wei Jingsheng, Lagos thanked China for helping Nigeria reach "the threshold of an economic revolution," parallel to bloody political revolution by military dictatorship that in Nov. hanged 9 human rights activists. …

Lori Wallach   Over a year ago, when the China PNTR debate was just starting, I was honored to be invited to a meeting (early 1999) with Wei Jinsheng, (born 1950, served as Red Guard & soldier in China. 1978 Democracy Wall movement presented Fifth Modernization in China essay. Imprisoned twice, released medical parole to U.S. 1997). Like most people, I only knew Wei as the famous Chinese dissident who had finally been sprung after 18 years in Chinese prisons & work camp. I knew that Wei was working with the thousands of other Chinese dissidents in exile in the US & Europe. US State Dept reports that after 6 years of engagement policy with China, meaning not linking trade and human rights like we sued to before the Clinton Admin ended this practise in 1994, human rights conditions in China got much worse and EVERY human rights, free speech, religious freedom and labor advocate was in jail or in exile.
Wei made compelling case about why not passing PNTR would help those fighting for human rights in China: most simply, the current regime relies on one thing for legitimacy: continuing economic growth & providing jobs. This growth & these jobs are based on exports. US takes 42% of China's total exports. Current regime may hate being pressured to improve human rights but its own survival is based on ensuring continued access to US market. Wei argued only US making conditions of access allowing free labor unions, allowing the free speech & information exchange necessary for free market to work, etc. would get regime to move because self interest in remaining in power would be at risk much more immediately from losing access to the US market than from allowing reforms. As for China's people: what worries many is combination of China entering the WTO, whereby 15 million peasant farmers will be forced off their land in the short term per Chinese govt data, and the repressiveness of the govt. Desparate, hungry WTO unemployed will find their protests and demands met with "gun or gulag" as Wei says.

New German coalition from Sept. elections puts HRts in foreign policy
12.28.98   Yojana Sharma MAI-NOT Forum

Torture of Tibetan children

Eusebio Penalver Mazorra Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana (FNCA, Jorge Mas Santos chair)   3.10.01 article; Cuban political prisoner for decades.   Cuba torture
12.2.99   "Castro accused Mazarro of Venz. pres. Chavez murder plot"   trans

Feb. 1995 White House fact sheet cited "control, restraint & transparency" as critical to arms transfer policy. Following year, Congress passed H.R. 3121 that increased openness of U.S. arms exports. 10 steps Congress could take to further assist

review of   Eur.Paliament POLITICAL CONTROL TECHNOLOGY Appraisal 1.6.98

Sudan

Khartoum torture rehab ctr Med. Dir. arrested by security forces
3.12.01   IRCT   Paul Dalton 45.22.18.50.57   Suzanne Munro Clark 45.22.62.07.82

OMCT
HRts Watch country reports
State Dept HRts 2000 report

Chechnya

State Dept HRts 2000 report
Govt forces in Chechnya looted valuables & foodstuffs from houses in regions that they controlled (see Sec. 1.g.)
1.g.   Use of Excessive Force   Violations of Humanitarian Law in Internal Conflicts

Indiscriminate use of force by govt troops in the Chechen conflict resulted in widespread civilian casualties and displacement of 100s of thousands, majority of whom sought refuge in neighboring Ingushetiya Republic. Federal Govt been fighting war against separatists in Chechnya since Aug. 1999 following attacks by Chechen separatists in neighboring Dagestan. In fall 1999, govt forces launched air & artillery attacks against numerous Chechen villages along the republic's eastern border with Dagestan in territory controlled by Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev. Attempts by govt forces to regain control over Chechnya were accompanied by indiscriminate use of air power & artillery, particularly in fall 1999 campaign to retake capital, Grozny. Numerous reports of attacks on civilian targets, incl bombing of schools & residential areas. Large-scale offensive military campaign early 2000 by govt forces continued against separatists. That offensive campaign largely ended following federal occupation of most of Chechnya by late spring, although federal forces remained engaged in an intensive anti-insurgency campaign against separatist guerillas.
Security situation prevented most foreign observers from travelling to region, and Fed.Govt enforced strict controls on press access. NGO's reported federal authorities in some cases confiscated recording devices & communications equipt at border. These restrictions made independent observation of conditions & verification of reports very difficult.
Nevertheless, there were numerous credible reports of human rights abuses and atrocities committed by federal forces.

Federal authorities continued to claim govt forces utilized "high precision" weapons & tactics against rebels; however, wide range of reports indicated govt military ops resulted in many civilian casualties and massive destruction of property & infrastructure. Number of civilian fatalities caused by federal military operations cannot be verified; estimates of total number of civilian dead vary from the hundreds to thousands. Ex. Dec. 20, 7 students killed when Russian forces fired mortar rounds on Grozny State Pedagogical Institute. Procurator was investigating incident at year's end. Number of civilians wounded by federal forces also could not be verified, although reports from hospitals that still were operating in region indicated majority of patients were mine or ordnance victims, and that such weaponry was the primary cause of death. Throughout the conflict, accusations were made by both sides about use of chemical weapons. However, no credible evidence has been offered to support these claims.
In addition to casualties attributable to indiscriminate use of force by federal armed forces, many atrocities reportedly were committed by individual federal servicemen or units. Command & control among military & special police units often appeared to be weak, and a culture of lawlessness, corruption and impunity flourished. This culture fostered individual acts by govt forces of violence & looting against civilians. Ex. according to HRW & press reports, on Feb. 5 Russian riot police & contract soldiers (men hired by the military for short-term service contracts) executed at least 60 civilians in Aldi & Chernorechiye, suburbs of Grozny. Perpetrators reportedly raped some victims and extorted money, later setting many houses on fire to destroy evidence.
According to HRW & other NGO reports, Russian soldiers executed at least 38 civilians in the Staropromyslovski district between 12.99 & 1.00   Most victims were women & elderly men, all apparently shot deliberately by Russian soldiers at close range. Similar events also occurred in Katr Yurt, where 100s of already displaced persons were forced to flee; persons were killed and houses were burned. Russian forces allegedly did this because Chechen fighters had passed through the village after the retreat from Grozny Feb. 5. Govt troops opened fire 11.99 on doctors & other medical staff at psychiatric hospital, injuring three persons. According to human rights NGO's, govt troops raped civilian women in Chechnya 12.99 in village of Alkhan-Yurt & in other villages.

According to human rights NGO's, federal troops on numerous occasions looted valuables & foodstuffs in regions they controlled. Many internally displaced persons (IDP's) reported they were forced to provide payments to, or were otherwise subjected to harassment & pressure by guards at checkpoints. There were also widespread reports of the killing or abuse of captured fighters by federal troops, as well as by separatists; "No quarter given" policy appeared to prevail in many units. A private wounded in the conflict told Union of Soldiers Mother's Committee (USMC) organization representatives that his unit commander gave order that no prisoners should be taken & no one should be left alive in Grozny. Federal forces reportedly beat, raped, tortured, and killed numerous detainees. HRts NGO Memorial compiled list of 300 missing captured rebels, some of whom had not been seen in 6 months. Federal forces reportedly ransomed Chechen detainees to their families. Prices were said to range from several hundred to thousands of dollars. Armed forces & police units reportedly routinely abused & tortured persons held at so-called filtration camps, where federal authorities claimed that fighters or those suspected of aiding rebels were sorted out from civilians.
Some reports that federal troops purposefully targeted some infrastructure essential to survival of civilian population, such as water facilities or hospitals. Physicians for HRts NGO reported physicians in Grozny Ambulatory Clinic #5 & Grozny City Hospital #4 stated their hospitals were destroyed. Indiscriminate use of force by federal troops resulted in massive destruction of housing and commercial & administrative bldgs, as well as breakdown of gas & water supply facilities and other types of infrastructure. Intl organizations & NGO representatives who visited Chechnya also reported little evidence of federal assistance for rebuilding war-torn areas.

Intl organizations estimate number of IDP's & refugees who left Chechnya as result of conflict reached total of about 280,000 at peak in late spring. Of this total, most went to Ingushetiya (245,000). Some 6,000 Chechen IDP's were reported in Dagestan, 3,000 in N.Ossetia, and 6,000 in Georgia. About 20,000 Chechen IDP's reportedly went to other regions of the Russian Federation. Federal refugee policy aimed at repatriating IDP's as soon as possible back to Chechnya. As of early fall, federal authorities promised that no one would be repatriated forcibly. Reliable information on the number & status of displaced persons within Chechnya was esp. difficult to obtain due to heavy fighting & limited outside access to region. UN High Comm. for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that at times as many as 150,000 persons were displaced within Chechnya and lacked access to humanitarian assistance. There were approximately 6,000 Dagestani IDP's in Dagestan. NGO's also estimated at least a quarter of a million residents, incl almost the entire Russian, Armenian and Jewish populations, migrated from Chechnya as result of current conflict and first war of 1994-96. At various points during conflict, authorities restricted movement of IDP's fleeing Chechnya. According to some reports by NGO's, early in the conflict border guards at times permitted only ethnic Russians to cross into Ingushetiya. According to the Russian press, some displaced persons were transported by bus back to parts of Chechnya that were under govt control.
In 1999 refugees at the border sometimes had to live in the open, without access to food or water. Russian border guards & police officers on the border between Chechnya & neighboring regions reportedly required Chechen refugees to pay money to pass. According to UNHCR, authorities early in the year prevented medical supplies destined for hospitals from entering Chechnya. There also were many credible reports that Russian guards at checkpoints within Chechnya demanding money to allow persons to pass. Some refugees also had trouble moving about because their documents had been lost, stolen, or confiscated by Russian authorities. Currently 8,000 persons live in railway carriages in the region. During the year, 4,000 others who had been living in railway cars were transferred to a winterized tent camp. According to the Council of Europe (COE), about 2,000 persons live in harsh conditions in rail wagons in Sernovodsk without sufficient heating and appropriate sanitation facilities, which puts them at risk of contagious diseases.

While Russian media coverage of events in Chechnya was extensive, most journalists & editors appeared to be exercising self-censorship and avoiding subjects embarrassing to the Govt (see Section 2.a.). Since resumption of war Oct. 1999, federal authorities, both military & civilian, limited journalists' access to war zones and confiscated reports & equipt, citing threats to reporters' safety. After Nov. 1999, addtl accreditation besides usual Foreign Ministry accreditation was required for entry to region. In some cases, foreign journalists publicly complained military officials in northern Caucasus region made it excessively difficult for them to receive local press accreditation. Ex. In Sept. AP reporter Ruslan Musayev was detained, beaten, and held in a covered pit for 24 hours until he paid Russian soldiers to release him.
In April UNCHR Mary Robinson visited Chechnya to investigate allegations of human rights abuses. However on the visit, according to Robinson's report to the UNCHR, Russian authorities denied her access to a number of locations, incl 5 detention centers where Amnesty Intl alleged Russian guards committed abuses against Chechen detainees. She also was denied access to villages near Grozny where Russian troops were accused of killing & raping civilians. Robinson did meet with IDP's in Ingushetiya, who provided firsthand testimony of alleged violations of human rights by Russian military, militia, and Ministry of Interior forces in Chechnya. Authorities asserted Robinson distorted true nature of the state of affairs and that Russia never hid the truth about the situation in Chechnya.

In response to intl criticism of human rights situation in Chechnya, several official Russian organizations were established to examine alleged human rights violations in the republic. In February President Putin appointed Vladimir Kalamanov as special Presidential Rep. for HRts in Chechnya. Kalamanov's office, with a staff of 25 persons, including 3 experts on loan from the COE, opened branches in Moscow and a number of locations in the N.Caucasus to take complaints about alleged human rights violations. In April Pavel Krasheninnikov, State Duma Committee on Legislation chair, was elected head of a newly created Independent Commission on HuRts in N.Caucasus. In Sept Commission opened 9 offices in Chechnya & 3 in Ingushetiya. Together Kalamanov's office & Krasheninnikov's Commission heard thousands of complaints from citizens, ranging from destruction or theft of property to rape & murder. However, neither organization was empowered to investigate or prosecute alleged offenses and had to refer complaints to the military or civil prosecutors. By year end, prosecutors had opened more than 100 cases of alleged crimes. Almost all of these concerned alleged violations of military discipline & other common crimes. Presidential Administration press service reported that 38 cases relating to crimes committed by servicemen against the local population were opened, and 7 servicemen were convicted by year's end. The charges against the 7 service men were not known. The Fed. Govt did not comply with the U.N. Commission on Human Rights resolution's calling for a broad-based, independent commission of inquiry to investigate alleged human rights violations & breaches of intl humanitarian law.

Chechen separatists also committed abuses, but, as with the many reported Russian violations, there were difficulties in verifying or investigating them. According to unconfirmed reports, separatists killed civilians who would not assist them, used civilians as human shields, forced civilians to build fortifications, and prevented refugees from fleeing Chechnya. For example, the rebel fighter Akhmed Ibragimov reportedly murdered 34 fellow villagers, including 3 children, after 1 of the villagers refused to dig trenches. One witness described seeing four bodies of persons who were crucified on spikes by separatists for cooperating with federal authorities in Grozny.
Separatists allegedly killed & attempted to kill numerous Chechen officials loyal to Fed. Govt. Ex. May 31, Grozny Mayor Supyan Makhchayev was wounded and his aide & a Russian official were killed by a car bomb. According to press reports, Chechen rebels opened fire on an EMERCOM (Ministry of Civil Defense, Emergencies, and the Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters) Car on June 9 in Grozny, killing 3 Russian epidemiologists and wounding three others. In July Ruslan Khamidov, head of the administration of the settlement of Alkhan-Yurt, was killed in his home. Aug. 4, head of the Nozhay-Yurtovskiy Rayon Administration Isita Gayribekova was wounded and her brother & sister killed in a bomb explosion at their mother's home. Chechen separatists started a series of suicide attacks in June. Two Chechen women detonated a truck packed with explosives at a Russian army base west of Grozny.
Human rights NGO's reported Chechen separatist units abused civilians & endangered their lives by provoking Russian counterattacks on civilian areas. The rebels took up positions in populated areas and fired on Russian forces, thereby exposing the civilians to Russian counterattacks. When villagers protested, they sometimes were beaten or fired upon by the rebels. Separatist military units also reportedly abused, tortured, and killed captured Russian soldiers. In one incident, rebel sources reported they executed 9 Russian prisoners after Moscow refused to exchange them for a Russian officer accused of raping & killing a Chechen woman. In another incident reported by an NGO, a Chechen witness described seeing the body of a Russian soldier with his throat cut. When asked by the witness why the soldier was killed, the rebel fighters purportedly replied that it was their standard practice to slit the throats of Russian captives.

Individual rebel field commanders were reportedly responsible for funding their own units, and some allegedly resorted to drug smuggling & kidnaping and ransom to raise funds. As result, it often was difficult, if not impossible, to make a distinction between rebel units & simple criminal gangs. Some rebels received financial & other forms of assistance from foreign supporters of intl terrorism. Intl terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden reportedly sent funds, personnel and material to elements in the rebel camp. According to press reports, as many as 400 of Bin Laden's followers may have joined the rebels from his base in Afghanistan (see Sec.1.a.).
Govt forces & Chechen separatists used landmines extensively in Chechnya & Dagestan since Aug. 1999. In April, the country announced plans to mine its border with Georgia. There is not accurate information on the number of those killed by landmines throughout Russia.

… The best-known example of the violation of the rights of a journalist operating in this region is that of Radio Liberty's Andrey Babitskiy. Babitskiy's coverage of the conflict in Chechnya prompted angry reaction from Govt & the armed forces; the latter frequently accused the correspondent of "conspiring with Chechen rebels." On Jan. 8 security agents raided Babitskiy's Moscow apartment and confiscated several items. On Jan. 15, Babitskiy was reported "missing" in Chechnya. Although the Govt denied at first any involvement in the case, Interior Ministry spokesman Oleg Aksenov acknowledged Jan. 28 that law enforcement authorities had arrested Babitskiy in Chechnya on the grounds that he "lacked the proper accreditation."
On Feb. 3, Acting Procurator General Vladimir Ustinov stated that Babitskiy had been "exchanged" for 3 Russian prisoners of war. Ustinov later revised his statement, explaining that Babitskiy had been released and that the journalist had "gone over to the Chechen rebels" of his own volition. However, later on, Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, a senior Presidential aide for public information on Chechnya, confirmed that Babitskiy had indeed been exchanged, and Interior Minister Vladimir Rushaylo defended the exchange as "correct & justified." On Feb. 8, a group of prominent Russian journalists issued a statement saying, "Until we learn the truth about this story, we have every reason to think that the Russian govt suspended not only freedom of speech, but also the rule of law itself, and is moving toward totalitarianism." Babitskiy subsequently was released but was later taken into custody in Makhachkala, Dagestan, by Govt forces on charges of "carrying a falsified passport.
On February 28, Acting President Putin announced publicly that there was no need to detain Babitskiy further, and the RFE/RL correspondent was released that day and sent back to Moscow. In Oct. Babitskiy was tried & convicted in a court in Makhachkala of this offense but was immediately amnestied under an amnesty granted in honor of WWII. Babitskiy had trouble obtaining a passport; however, he did receive one and is now working abroad.

On Feb. 2, Russian troops in Chechnya detained Giles Whittell, Moscow Bureau Chief of the Times of London. Presidential aide Sergey Yastrzhembskiy said at a press conf. that the journalist was detained & returned to Moscow because he "lacked accreditation allowing him to work in Chechnya." The GDF issued a statement characterizing the Chechnya accreditation requirements of the Russian authorities as "illegal." On Feb. 15, the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported that Yastrzhembskiy announced an official order denying journalists access to the Chechen capital of Grozny "for 2 to 3 weeks." The order additionally limited journalist access to military hospitals by requiring that interviews take place only "under the supervision of representatives of federal troops." On March 3, federal troops in the Chechen city of Mozdok confiscated & destroyed an ORT videotape containing interviews with Russian soldiers. According to ORT correspondent Roman Perevezentsev, the crew had traveled into Mozdok to report on casualties among Russian troops in a recent combat operation in Chechen village of Pervomayskoye. On March 15 Russian Ministry of Press, TV & Radio Broadcasting, and Mass Communications issued statement that warned Russian mass media providing air time or news-space to Chechen rebel leaders would be considered violation of counterterrorism laws. In April the Ministry issued specific warnings to the newspapers Kommersant & Novaya Gazeta for publishing interviews with Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov. No further action was taken. The new Information Security Doctrine approved by the Security Council in Aug. implies that foreign media outlets, such as Radio Free Europe Liberty, represent a danger to the state. Human rights activists & journalists fear media freedom could be even more severely restricted.

The current conflict in Chechnya resulted in a large number of internally displaced persons (see Section 1.g.). Intl organizations estimate number of IDP's who left Chechnya as result of conflict reached a total of about 280,000 at peak. Of this total, most of the IDP's went to Ingushetiya (245,000), 6,000 were reported in Dagestan, 3,000 in North Ossetia, and 6,000 in the Republic of Georgia. A total of 20,000 Chechen IDP's were reported to have gone to other regions of the Russian Federation. Reliable information on the number and status of displaced persons within Chechnya itself was especially difficult to obtain due to heavy fighting and limited outside access to the region. At times as many as 200,000 persons were estimated by the UNHCR to be displaced within Chechnya and without access to humanitarian assistance. In addition, 6,000 Dagestani IDP's were reported displaced within Dagestan. At various points during the conflict, authorities restricted the movement of the IDP's fleeing Chechnya. According to some reports by NGO's, border guards at times permitted only ethnic Russians to cross into Ingushetiya.
According to the press, some displaced persons were transported by bus back to parts of Chechnya that were under Russian Govt control. Refugees at the border sometimes had to live in the open, often without access to food or water. Russian border guards and police officers on the border between Chechnya and neighboring regions--and at checkpoints within Chechnya--reportedly required Chechen refugees to pay money to pass. According to UNHCR, authorities early in the year prevented medical supplies for Chechen hospitals from entering Chechnya; however since spring they have been able to do so. Some refugees also had trouble moving about because their documents were lost, stolen, or confiscated by Russian authorities. The NGO Civic Assistance estimated in October that only 141,870 of 171,000 IDP's were able to register and thereby receive aid (see Section 1.g.). In April North Ossetia's Deputy Prime Minister stated that an estimated 15,000 South Ossetian refugees, who fled to North Ossetia from Georgia in the early 1990's to escape ethnic violence, should be sent back to the country. North Ossetian officials claim that refugees occupying sanatoria and tourist facilities have deprived the republic of millions of rubles in income. Human rights NGO's and press organizations reported that federal and republic authorities at times pressured the IDP's to return from Ingushetiya to Chechnya. According to these reports, government officials singled out persons from Chechen towns and districts that were designated as "safe" by the Government. According to some accounts, refugee camp administrators announced that persons from these areas would no longer receive food rations. After international criticism of these actions, government officials publicly said that they would not pressure or compel refugees to return to Chechnya. At the same time, authorities consistently announced their determination to repatriate all refugees back to Chechnya as soon as possible.

The country has yet to comply with the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) resolution on Chechnya provisions to facilitate visits to the region by UN special rapporteurs and special representatives of the Secretary General. The country reportedly invited only the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, and Special Rapporteur for Violence against Women, but explicitly de-linked these invitations to the resolution. The country did not invite the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, or the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons. Citizens can file appeals to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg about alleged human rights violations that occurred after Russia's May 5, 1998, accession to the Council of Europe. Complainants need no longer exhaust all appeals in Russian courts before they can turn to the European Court. According to the press, the ECHR received 914 complaints from Russia, 60 of which are based on human rights violations in Chechnya. However, because the Government refused so far to respond to the initial complaints accepted by the ECHR (a procedural requirement), no cases have yet been heard.

rape

In Mexico, an unpunished crime
Rape victims face widespread cultural bias in pursuit of justice
6.30.02   Mary Jordan & Laurie Freeman Mexico City Wash.Post pA1 Reyeshogpan, Mexico   These gorgeous mountain slopes in central Mexico, blooming with black pepper plants & golden cornstalks, camouflage the sorrow of the 2 silent sisters. Antonia & Isabel Francisco Melendez, who were born deaf, are 9 months pregnant, and the doctors treating them say they were raped. The sisters, who cannot speak, cry and crumple, and literally fold up, when asked how they got pregnant. Their babies are due at the same time, within a week or so. Do they know the man? Did it happen in the fields on their way home from school? Isabel seemed to try to answer once, to her grandmother, by pointing to a spot high on a mountainside before tears streamed down her face and she turned away again.
Antonia is 13 years old, and Isabel 16. Perhaps if they were older, the pregnancies would have been easier to keep secret, the way rapes & beatings of women are usually dealt with in Mexico. But in this little town of fewer than 500 people, a place where the church bells toll every afternoon at 5 to call everyone to say the rosary, the reality is hard to hide. The girls' tiny frames swell more each day. Their backs and legs are sore, not from playing tag with schoolmates, but because their bodies are telling them they will soon be mothers. "This is a crime and there should be an investigation," said Juana Maria Diego Victor, a community leader in this village 85 miles northeast of Puebla city. "Someone should protect these girls."

Mexico is struggling to modernize its justice system, but when it comes to punishing sexual violence against women, surprisingly little has changed in a century. In many parts of Mexico, the penalty for stealing a cow is harsher than the punishment for rape. Although the law calls for tough penalties for rape, up to 20 years in prison, only rarely is there an investigation into even the most barbaric of sexual violence. Women's groups estimate that perhaps 1%of rapes are ever punished. Although the 2 girls' medical charts say their pregnancies were the "product of rape," no police authority has looked into the case.
In recent decades, Mexico has made strides to improve women's rights & opportunities. Mexican women still have much higher illiteracy rates than men, but that is slowly changing as young girls are staying in school longer. During the 1990s, laws that trampled women's rights were abolished, such as those that said married women needed their husband's permission to hold a job outside the home. But in the country that made the term "machismo" famous, where women were given the right to vote only in 1953, women's rights advocates said rape and other violence against women are still not treated as serious crimes. And they said police, prosecutors & judges often show indifference or hostility toward women who claim rape, such as in the case of Yessica Yadira Diaz Cazares.

Diaz testified that 3 police officers raped her in 1997, when she was 16, as she was on her way home from school in the northern city of Durango. She then did a rare thing: She tried to punish her attackers. When she went to the police station with her mother, she was jeered and then jailed overnight. They forced her, as is mandatory in Mexico, to have a physical vaginal exam by a government doctor. They made her submit to 8 separate blood tests, telling her, falsely, that the tests would determine whether she had been raped. But no one ever told her what the lab results were. When the teenager did not back off, even after her family received death threats, a prosecutor told her that to identify the officers who attacked her, she must physically lay her hand on them. It was not good enough to point out her attackers. She needed to touch them, she was instructed. When she reached out and touched an officer, he taunted her and told her she was crazy.
Finally she gave up. She told her sister she was tired of seeking justice. 3 months later, the young girl with big brown eyes & long, wavy hair killed herself with an overdose of prescription drugs. After her burial, the national human rights commission took up her case and helped convict 2 officers of rape. "They make the few women who dare to report rape give up," said Yessica's mother, Maria Eugenia Cazares, who said her daughter's rape & death shattered the family's life. After her daughter's suicide, she moved her family to Canada where, she said, there are more enlightened laws to protect women.

"In 90%of the cases of rape, the Mexican police blame the women," she said in an interview. "In the few cases where they know the man is guilty, they let him 'fix' it with money." She said she believes that a "machismo culture," instilled through what is learned in the home, school and church, has allowed many men to "believe they are superior & dominant, and that women are an object." She said that mind-set has contributed to making many men, incl policemen, prosecutors, judges and others in positions of authority, believe that sexual violence against women is no big deal. "The thinking is 'she's a woman, so she deserved it,' or 'he's a man, so what do you expect?' " said Cazares.
Rape in Mexico is prosecuted at the state level, and state laws vary. A review of criminal laws in all 31 Mexican states showed that many states require that if a 12-year-old girl wants to accuse an adult man of statutory rape, she must first prove she is "chaste and pure." Nineteen of the states require that statutory rape charges be dropped if the rapist agrees to marry his victim.

"What message is this? That the crime is not serious," said Elena Azaola, author of "The Crime of Being a Women," a book about how the Mexican justice system discriminates against women. In order for a woman to file a criminal complaint alleging rape, she must submit to a medical exam by a doctor assigned by the prosecutor's office. Patricia Duarte, president of the Mexican Association Against Violence Against Women, said these exams, routinely conducted in the prosecutor's office, are often carried out with little sensitivity or privacy. The exams, she said, are an obstacle to reporting rape that contributes to "impunity of rapists" in Mexico.
Whatever problems women face in the cities and towns, they are compounded in small villages where old customs are still the only true law. Ten million Mexicans are indigenous, as are most of the people in these highlands of the Sierra Madre. In Mexico's march toward modernity, there is great tension here between protecting women from violence and honoring indigenous customs. In many of the thousands of indigenous communities, by longstanding custom, women are essentially servants of their fathers, brothers and husbands. In many villages around Reyeshogpan, women are forbidden to go out after dusk without their husband or their husband's permission. ¹ After 7 p.m., streets in village after village are populated by men only, many of them drunk. Alcoholism is another problem that contributes to violence against women.

Town elders who act as judges in local criminal matters are invariably men. In one village in Guerrero state, elders were recently asked how they punish rape. The 6 men looked confused, as if they did not know what the term meant. When it was explained to them, they all laughed and said it sounded more like a courting ritual than a crime. When they stopped laughing, they said a rapist would probably get a few hours in the local jail, or he might have to pay the victim's family a $10 or $20 fine, but that all would be forgotten if he and the victim got married. In the case of a cow thief, they said, the robber would be jailed. And, unlike the rapist, a cow thief would be brought before the elders for a lecture about the severity of the crime.
In the southern state of Oaxaca last summer, the one-year-old, govt-funded Oaxacan Women's Institute persuaded the legislature to pass heavy criminal penalties against a practice known as "rapto." Laws in most Mexican states define rapto as a case where a man kidnaps a woman not for ransom, but with the intent of marrying her or to satisfy his "erotic sexual desire." The new law championed by the women's group established penalties of at least 10 years in prison. But in March, the state legislature reversed itself and again made the practice a minor infraction. A key legislator, a man, argued for the reduction, calling the practice harmless & "romantic."

Human rights groups disagree. They say it is not charming for a man to spot a woman he fancies sitting in a park, pick her up and carry her away to have sex with her. Yet to this day, that is still how some women meet their husbands. The atty general's office said there have been 137 criminal complaints of rapto in the state of Puebla since January 2000. Complete statistics are impossible to find, because most cases are settled between the 2 families involved and never reported. Because rapto implies that the girl was taken away for sex, her parents want to avoid the shame associated with making a public complaint to police.
In some cases, the girls voluntarily go with the man as a way to elope to avoid wedding expenses. But Gabriela Gutierrez Kleman, a lawyer with the Oaxacan Women's Institute, said in many cases the women are taken against their will. Gutierrez said it is hard to ask girls to complain about rapto, to buck a system that has changed little since their great-grandmother's time. If they do, she said, the family or the community often "treats them as outcasts."

The regional maternity hospital in Zacapoaxtla caters to women & children from scores of villages in the highlands here in the northeast corner of Puebla state. White-coated doctors & nurses scurry about among the crying children, past brightly painted walls decorated with basic information about nutrition, breast-feeding and sanitation. About 220 babies are born there each month, many of them to mothers who are children themselves. Hospital officials said babies are born there frequently to girls as young as 12, many of whom do not understand that intercourse caused their pregnancy.
The pregnancy of a child that age implies a crime: In Puebla, it is illegal to have sex with a person younger than 18. But only rarely are rape charges filed in these cases. Teresa Arrieta Martinez, 13, petite & hugely pregnant, cringed as a nurse took a blood sample as part of her prenatal care. Her boyfriend, Eliazar Hernandez Martinez, a 20-year-old grocery store manager, stood outside in the waiting room. About 7 months ago, when Teresa was 12, Hernandez had sex with her and she became pregnant. Because of her age, the law says that Hernandez committed statutory rape. But it was not the police who came after him; it was Teresa's mother, Maria Juana Martinez. "He could go to jail. If he doesn't carry through on his promise to marry her, I'll have to report him," she said. "I'll sue him if he fails her."

In most states marriage is a legal remedy for statutory rape. Women's groups say if the penalties were harsher, statutory rape cases would not be so common. As it is now, a man can agree to a wedding to avoid going to jail, and then abandon the woman. Social workers say many unhappy, abusive marriages begin with statutory rape. Any day, Antonia & Isabel, the 2 deaf sisters, are due to deliver their babies at the same hospital. Antonia, the 13-year-old, lives with her mother in a small house near the main road of Reyeshogpan, a tiny village with little more than a church, basketball court and general store. Antonia is carrying her baby in the breach position, so her doctors expect a difficult delivery.
Isabel, 16, lives with her 95-year-old grandfather in a small wooden house nearby. It is at the bottom of a ravine lined with cornstalks, a challenging 30-minute climb straight down from where her mother, stepfather and sister live. No one seems quite sure how Isabel will be able to make the climb up to get to the hospital once she is in labor. Isabel passes her days sitting on a log at her front door, staring off into the cornfields or embroidering. She wears her silky brown hair neatly tied up, her white dress and apron are impeccably clean and she folds her hands nervously over her huge belly.

The girls' mother, Ventura Melendez, 35, communicates with them using rudimentary sign language and drawings. When she asked Isabel if she had any pain, the girl put her arm against her lower back. She nodded when asked if she is scared about being such a young mother. Melendez said she prefers not to dwell on how they got pregnant. "What happened to them happens to a lot of girls," she said. "We don't want justice. We don't want trouble." But Diego Victor, the neighbor who has known the girls since they were born, said she is angry that what happened to the girls will never be punished. "They deserve better," she said.

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