India: Gujarat Massacre Cases Sabotaged

(New York, July 1, 2003) - The ringleaders of massacres committed in 2002
are still roaming free in Gujarat, Human Rights Watch charged in a new
report released today.More

Asian Women Migrant Workers on Death Row

(New York, July 2, 2003) -- The government of Saudi Arabia
should impose a moratorium on executions until all death
penalty cases are independently reviewed, Human Rights Watch
said today. The review should also examine practices of the
justice and interior ministries that may have violated basic
due process rights of Saudi citizens and foreigners
sentenced to death.

Human Rights Watch said the cases of two Asian women migrant
workers sentenced to death for allegedly killing their
employers raise troubling questions about the transparency
and fairness of the Saudi justice system in capital
punishment cases. Neither woman had access to a lawyer or
any other form of legal assistance, and consular officials
were not present at their trials. Both women were convicted
on the basis of confessions, a common feature of the
kingdom's justice system.

"Innocent people may be on death row in Saudi Arabia facing
imminent execution," said Virginia Sherry, associate
director of the Middle East and North Africa division of
Human Rights Watch. "Two Asian women migrant workers now on
death row are persuasive examples of the need for review and
reform: they did not speak Arabic, did not have lawyers,
and may have been forced to sign confessions."

It is not publicly known how many Saudi citizens and
foreigners are in prison awaiting the death penalty. At a
meeting with Human Rights Watch representatives in Riyadh in
January 2003, Major General Dr. Ali bin Hussein al-Harithi,
director of the interior ministry's Prisons Administration,
declined to provide statistics of the number on death row.

The two Asian women migrant workers who are now on death row
are Sarah Jane Landicho Dematera of the Philippines, who was
sentenced to death in 1993, and Siti Zaenab binti Buhri Rupa
of Indonesia, who received a death sentence in 2000. Both
women were employed in the kingdom as domestic workers in
private households.

Sarah Dematera was forced to write down and then sign a
dictated "confession," and was held incommunicado for one
year. Siti Zaenab's family was not officially notified of
her arrest until two months before her trial. Two migrants
rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) - Kanlungan
Center Foundation in Quezon City, Philippines, and the
Center for Indonesian Migrant Workers in Jakarta, Indonesia
- have closely followed the cases and continue to campaign
actively on behalf of the women with their own governments
and Saudi officials. These NGOs provided information to
Human Rights Watch about the cases.

"The pattern of coerced confessions and the weight given to
them in court in Saudi Arabia is well established," said
Sherry. "If information about death penalty cases is
withheld from family members and others, legal assistance
not provided, and trials are not open, it's hard to have
confidence in the verdicts."

Human Rights Watch said that the Saudi government should
release statistics and other information about death row
prisoners, and create an independent commission of inquiry
to examine each case. Members should include experienced
defense lawyers, legal scholars, and medical and mental
health professionals, who should conduct private in-depth
interviews with the defendants. Saudi women should be
represented on the commission, particularly in view of the
rapport that they can establish with women prisoners on
death row. The inquiry commission should fully examine pre-
trial detention and trial procedures on a case-by-case
basis, and determine:

- the period of time the defendant was held incommunicado
- the government body with custody of the defendant
during incommunicado detention
- treatment of the defendant during incommunicado
detention
- date of any confession and the circumstances under
which it was obtained
- date(s) when family members and other interested
parties were informed of the arrest, and the date on which
these parties first had access to the defendant
- date of notification of the charges against the
defendant and a description of these charges
- the defendant's requests for legal assistance, if any
- date(s) of the provision of legal advice or assistance
to the defendant prior to trial

The review of trial procedures should include examination of
the following:

- persons notified of the trial date and the method of
notification
- persons present at the trial
- witnesses who testified at the trial for the defense
and the prosecution, if any
- evidence upon which the court's judgment was based
- use of a confession as evidence, and the content of
that confession
- efforts of the judges to establish the voluntariness of
the confession
- ability of the accused to present a defense to the
court
- the written judgment of the court

Human Rights Watch said that the findings and
recommendations of the commission should be transmitted to
senior government officials and also made public.
Individuals who suffered human rights abuses in the criminal
justice system should be released and provided with
compensation, or tried again with the guarantees now
available under Saudi and international human rights law,
including the right to legal assistance during every phase
of the legal process.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all
circumstances, because of its inherent cruelty and
irreversibility. -keralamonitor.com

Saudi Arabia: Religious Police Role in School Fire Criticized

.
(New York, March 15, 2002) -- Saudi authorities should conduct an independent, thorough, and transparent investigation of the March 11 fire at a girls' public intermediate school in Mecca that claimed the lives of at least fourteen students, Human Rights Watch said today. The tragedy has focused attention on the role of the religious police as well as the state agency responsible for the education of girls and women in the kingdom.Saudi Justice System

India: Gujarat Massacre Cases Sabotaged

(New York, July 1, 2003) - The ringleaders of massacres committed in 2002
are still roaming free in Gujarat, Human Rights Watch charged in a new
report released today.

The 70-page report, Compounding Injustice: The Government's Failure to
Redress Massacres in Gujarat, examines the record of state authorities in
holding perpetrators accountable and providing humanitarian relief to
victims of state-supported massacres of Muslims in February and March
2002.

Human Rights Watch urged the federal government to take over cases of
large-scale massacres where the state government has sabotaged
investigations. On June 27, a Gujarat state court acquitted twenty-one
people accused of burning alive twelve Muslims in a bakery in Vadodara.
Thirty-five of the seventy-three witnesses reportedly retracted in court
the statements they had given to the police identifying the attackers.

"The government's record on the massacres is appalling," said Smita
Narula, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch and author of the
report. "Sixteen months after the beginning of the violence, not a single
person has been convicted."

More than one hundred Muslims have been charged under India's much-
criticized Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) for their alleged
involvement in the train massacre in Godhra. No Hindus have been charged
under POTA in connection with the violence against Muslims, which the
government continues to dismiss as spontaneous and unorganized.

Although the Indian government initially boasted of thousands of arrests
following the attacks, most of those arrested have since been acquitted,
released on bail with no further action taken, or simply let go. Police
regularly downgrade serious charges to lesser crimes - from murder or
rape to rioting, for example - and alter victims' statements to delete
the names of the accused.

Even when cases reach trial, Muslim victims face biased prosecutors and
judges. Hindu and Muslim lawyers representing Muslim victims, and doctors
providing medical relief to them, have also faced harassment and threats.

Hundreds of women and girls were brutally raped, mutilated, and burnt
to death in Gujarat. The police have refused to pursue these cases.

In numerous instances, and in an effort to cover up their own
participation in the violence, the police have instituted false cases
against men and women injured in police shootings.

Living conditions for more than 100,000 people displaced by the
violence continue to be grossly inadequate. For months they resided in
makeshift relief camps with little support from the state. By the end
of October 2002, the government had closed most of the camps, forcing
some families back into neighborhoods where their attackers still live
and where their security is continuously threatened. Most people
interviewed by Human Rights Watch received negligible amounts to
compensate for the destruction of their homes, ranging from a few
hundred to a few thousand rupees, or less than one hundred dollars.

Hindus in Gujarat have suffered as well, Human Rights Watch said.
Thousands of small businesses owned by Hindus closed down during the
violence. The relatives of the Hindus killed in Godhra have been
denied redress and some face economic destitution. The Human Rights
Watch report also documents and strongly condemns the September 2002
massacre of Hindus at Akshardham in Gandhinagar, Gujarat's capital.

Hindu nationalist groups continue to arm civilians in Gujarat and many
other Indian states. Instead of cracking down on these groups, the
Gujarat state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has included the
distribution of arms as part of its election manifesto.

In December 2002, the BJP won by a landslide in Gujarat state
elections. Using posters and videotapes of the Godhra massacre, and
rhetoric that depicted Muslims as terrorists intent on destroying the
Hindu community, the party gained the most seats in areas affected by
the communal violence.

In states that go to the polls later this year, such as Rajasthan and
Madhya Pradesh, potentially explosive campaigns are already in full
swing. Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP)
are distributing weapons similar to those used in Gujarat, as well as
literature depicting Muslims as sexual deviants and terrorists.
Members of both communities live in fear that a simple altercation
could become the pretext for large-scale violence.

The Human Rights Watch report also examines the recruitment of Dalits
(so-called untouchables) and tribals (indigenous peoples) in the
violence against Muslims in Gujarat, and the subsequent scapegoating
of these communities in police arrests. Since the events of last year,
Christians in the state have also come under renewed administrative,
legislative, and physical attack.

The Human Rights Watch report includes forty detailed recommendations
to Indian authorities and the international community. Human Rights
Watch called on the Indian government to act immediately to prevent
further attacks, end impunity, and deliver meaningful assistance to
those displaced and dispossessed by the violence.

For Human Rights Watch's original report on the 2002 massacres of
Muslims and Hindus in Gujarat, "We Have No Orders to Save You," please
see http://hrw.org/reports/2002/india/.