Articles by Human Rights Watch
Documentary maker beaten
(HRW/IFEX) – Human Rights Watch reports that Yuri Khashchevatsky, an internationally renowned film director and member of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee who recently became a member of the pro-democracy movement “Charter ’97”, has been severely beaten. On the night of 23 December 1997, two unidentified men broke into Khashchevatsky’s film studio and beat him unconscious, […]
East Timor activist to be charged for displaying photos of torture
(HRW/IFEX) – East Timor activist Vaughan Williams from the Darwin-based Australians for a Free East Timor was due to appear at the Northern Territory’s Darwin Magistrates Court on 15 December 1997 for publicly displaying pictures of East Timorese women being tortured by the Indonesian Armed Forces (Abri). He is being charged by police under the […]
Press conference on case of Alexander Nikitin
(HRW/IFEX) – On 28 November 1997 at the Russian American Press Center a press conference was to be held on the latest developments in the case of Alexander Nikitin, whom the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) accuses of having committed serious anti-state crimes. Scheduled participants in the press conference were: Pavel Gutiontov (Chair of the […]
Human Rights Watch to co-sponsor press conference by Wei Jingsheng
(HRW/IFEX) – Human Rights in China, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International will be sponsoring Wei Jingsheng’s first press conference in the United States of America at the New York Public Library’s Celeste Bartos Forum (entrance on 42nd Street) on 21 November 1997 at 10:30 am EST. The press conference will run no later than […]
Freedoms are sacrificed in advance of Jordan’s elections, says Human Rights Watch
(HRW/IFEX) – The parliamentary elections in Jordan on 4 November 1997 will be held in a climate of mounting restrictions on freedom of expression and association, Human Rights Watch charges in a report issued on 29 October. “A marked deterioration in respect for basic freedoms has seriously affected the ability of Jordanians to make informed […]
Writer arrested over unpublished article criticizing local politician
(HRW/IFEX) – Police arrested Ali Sneid, a 25-year old Jordanian writer from a small village near Madaba, on 26 September 1997 at the bus station in Madaba as he was boarding a bus for the village of Ziban. Sneid had recently written an article that criticized a local leader for making what he perceived to […]
Journalist U Win Tin reported to be seriously ill
(HRW/IFEX) – Burmese political prisoner and journalist U Win Tin, 67, is reported to be seriously ill and perhaps close to death in Rangoon General Hospital. He was apparently transferred there in early October 1997 from Myingyan jail, known to be one of the worst in Burma. **Updates IFEX alerts dated 17 April and 10 […]
Serbian elections will not be free nor fair
(Human Rights Watch/IFEX) – Elections in Serbia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on 21 September 1997 will be neither free nor fair, declared Human Rights Watch/Helsinki on 18 September 1997. State control of the media and a lack of accountability for police brutality following last year’s elections seriously undermine the legitimacy of Sunday’s vote. “An […]