Concerns in Europe January June 2001
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Freedom of expression and religion
- Conscientious objection to military service
Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
Amnesty International September 2001 In June AI wrote to the Greek authorities to express concern about reports that some 20 asylum seekers who arrived in Crete on 5 June had been ill- treated by members of the coastal guard forces during their first days of detention at the premises of the Navy School in
Vlite area.
Subsequent medical
examinations were said to have found injuries consistent with these allegations. They were part of a larger group of 164 asylum seekers, many of them of Kurdish origin. The group, including 45 women and children, were transferred to premises at Chania airport where they were reportedly held in severely overcrowded conditions, in a space of some 100 to 150 square metres, with access to only three toilets, and little or no exercise and access to fresh air. Extremely hot weather further aggravated these conditions, which in AI’s view may have amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. By 14 June, following the intervention of the Greek Section of Medecins du Monde, families and children had been transferred to better accommodation in Athens.
to express its concern about the conviction of Sotiris Bletsas, a member of the Society for Aromanian (Vlach) Culture. In 1995 he had distributed at a Vlach festival in Greece a publication of the Brussels-based European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL), which listed minority languages in European Union states, including Aromanian and several other languages in Greece. On 2 February a court in Athens found him guilty under Article 191 of the Criminal Code, dealing with the distribution of false information liable to cause public alarm. He was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment suspended for three years, and a fine. AI called for a review of the case and urged that the charges against him be dropped and that Article 191 be annulled or amended to ensure that it is never used to punish someone for the non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression. In March Mehmet Emin Aga (see AI Index: EUR 01/01/00), a member of the Turkish minority, was acquitted on one of the 14 charges brought against him of “usurping [the function] of a religious Minister” by the Court in Larissa. AI is calling for all the other 13 charges still pending against him to be similarly dropped.
In June AI sent a delegate to observe the appeal hearing of
conscientious objector Lazaros Petromelidhis, but the hearing was postponed pending a decision by the Council of State concerning a request he had submitted to the Council, and because a witness failed to appear in court. In 1999 Lazaros Petromelidhis was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on charges of “insubordination in time of general mobilisation”, after failing to respond to call-up. He had previously been deprived of his right to conscientious objector status after refusing alternative civilian service on the grounds of its punitive length (30 months instead of the four months military service required of a man of his age and circumstances). He had been adopted by AI as a prisoner of conscience following his imprisonment between April and June 1999. AI has called on the Greek authorities to amend legislation relating to conscientious objection and alternative civilian service so as to bring it into line with international standards and recommendations. In particular, AI urged that alternative civilian service should not be of discriminatory and punitive length, that conscientious objectors should have the right to claim conscientious objector status at any time, both up to and after entering the armed forces, and that the right to perform alternative civilian service never be derogated from, including in time of war.
H U N G A R Y
AI is concerned about two recent reports of police ill- treatment of Roma. The organization is also concerned about a reported incident in which the police apparently failed adequately to protect Romani victims from racist violence. After this incident the police repeatedly failed to act upon the victims’ complaint.
According to information received by AI, on 9 February 2001, at around 2am, in Bag, Pest County, around 80 police officers raided a funeral wake in the Romani settlement and indiscriminately assaulted the mourners and other people attending this function, as well as other people whose houses were reportedly searched in an aggressive manner. According to one report eight people, who were arrested during the raid, were released after four hours of custody without being questioned or charged with any criminal offence. The Roma of Bag had organized a wake in memory of a 30-year-old man, a father of five children, who died in a traffic accident. At around 2am the police surrounded the Romani settlement. One group of police officers was said to have assaulted the people standing by the fire, another group searched the houses and the third inspected automobiles belonging to the residents of the Romani settlement. Representatives of the Roma Polgárjogi Alapítvány (Roma Civil Rights Foundation, a local human rights organization), who interviewed the reported victims of police ill-treatment, and other witnesses, recorded a number of police ill-treatment incidents. Speaking about the motive for the police raid, György Papp, Gödöll Chief of Police, reportedly stated that because of the rising crime in the area, the police had increased the surveillance of certain Yüklə 1,36 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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