Bolivia: Awaiting justice: torture, extrajudicial executions and legal proceedings

Bolivia: Awaiting justice: torture, extrajudicial executions and legal proceedings

Comments:
Amnesty International is concerned that the Bolivian authorities have not adopted the findings and recommendations of the investigation undertaken by the Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Cámara de Diputados, the Bolivian Commission of Human Rights of the Chamber of Deputies, into the human rights violations committed between 1989 and 1993. The organization is also concerned that the state has failed to bring to justice the alleged perpetrators of these violations. The alleged human rights violations include extrajudicial executions, torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners. In addition, Amnesty International is concerned that the fair trial rights of many of these political prisoners have been violated. Among other things many of them were held in illegally prolonged incommunicado detention, were denied access to defence counsel during the initial period of their detention and interrogation, had 'confessions' allegedly extracted under torture or ill-treatment accepted as evidence against them accused and have not been tried within a reasonable time. Amnesty International has been monitoring a number of cases of political prisoners who were arrested between 1989 and 1993 as members or suspected members of armed opposition groups following a series of violent incidents for which armed opposition groups claimed responsibility. Six of these political prisoners have been released, one provisionally whilst awaiting trial, two have been acquitted and three are on parole (libertad extra-muro) after serving half their sentence. One is serving a 30-year sentence. Twenty six others remain in detention charged with up to fourteen criminal offences, including armed rebellion and terrorism. Though they were arrested between three and six years ago, their trials have still to be completed. Amnesty International is also concerned that the proceedings against the 26 political detainees have not been conducted in accordance with international standards for fair trial. These include the absence of a defence lawyer during their interrogation and the acceptance by the courts of such statements as evidence. Those still in detention are members or alleged members of one of three armed groups that have appeared in Bolivia since 1989: the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Zárate Willca (FAL-ZW), Zárate Willca Armed Liberation Forces; the Comisión Néstor Paz Zamora-Ejército de Liberación Nacional (CNPZ-ELN), Néstor Paz Zamora Commission-National Liberation Army; the Ejército Guerrillero Tupac Katari (EGTK), Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army. All three organizations have been accused of carrying out violent activities since 1989 and all three have accepted responsibility for armed actions. Amnesty International work includes opposing and condemning human rights abuses by opposition groups including hostage-taking, torture and killing of prisoners and other deliberate and arbitrary killings. However, international human rights law makes it clear that, no exceptional circumstances, not even violence or attacks by armed opposition groups, justify violations of certain fundamental human rights by the state such as the right to life and the right to be free from torture. Amnesty International believes that it is particularly important that governments should rigorously uphold international standards for fair trials in the trials of political detainees. The human rights violations against the political detainees were widely publicized at the time by the Bolivian press and reported by the non-governmental organization Asamblea Permanente de Derechos Humanos de Bolivia, Bolivian Permanent Human Rights Assembly. The Comisión Andina de Juristas, Andean Commission of Jurists, a regional international non-governmental organization, reported the complaints in 1993 and more recently, in July 1995, the Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Cámara de Diputados, Bolivian Commission of Human Rights of the Chamber of Deputies, documented the allegations in its report 'Denuncia de Torturas a Ciudadanos Sindicados de Alzamiento Armado' (Denunciation of Torture of Citizens Accused of Armed Uprising). The Bolivian Human Rights Commission report is awaiting the approval of the Bolivian parliament. Amnesty International urges the Honourable Chamber of Deputies to give full support to the report and recommendations as presented by its Commission of Human Rights.

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