ABUSES IN AMERICA PUT UNDER SCRUTINY

WASHINGTON -- The world's leading human-rights group, Amnesty International,
is launching its first worldwide campaign aimed at the United States,
claiming abuses such as "widespread and persistent" police brutality,
"endemic" physical and sexual violence against prisoners, "racist"
application of the death penalty, and the use of "high-tech repression
tools" such as electroshock devices and incapacitating chemical sprays.

The London-based group initiates a yearlong USA Campaign with the release
Tuesday of a 150-page report highlighting what the organization alleges is
an American "double standard" of criticizing human-rights abuses abroad
while not doing enough to remedy those at home.

With Americans accounting for a third of its million members worldwide,
Amnesty might be taking a risk in deciding to focus on alleged abuses in
this country.

The campaign's theme, "Human rights aren't just a foreign affair," is
intended to highlight what Amnesty says is the need for the United States to
"peek into its own closet" and recognize that it can't criticize abuses by
other nations unless it is willing to take a hard look at its practices.

Curt Goering, deputy executive director of Amnesty USA, said he anticipates
"overwhelming support" from American members to this effort. "Our interest
is not to embarrass, it is to highlight these issues and make
recommendations."

This is the first time in its 37-year history that Amnesty has undertaken a
major human-rights campaign focused on any Western country. The watchdog
group won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for its crusading efforts on behalf
of people around the world mistreated by their governments.

Amnesty contends that the U.S. is "failing to meet" its human-rights
obligations and that the movement for greater protection of human rights
worldwide is endangered by U.S. violations.

Critics may challenge Amnesty's decision to use its financial resources and
moral authority on its USA Campaign when repressive regimes--Iraq,
Afghanistan and North Korea, to name a few--openly brutalize their citizens
with little regard to due process of law, international public opinion or
criticism by Amnesty International.

Many countries, however, particularly those criticized by the State
Department's annual report, may be pleased to be able to point to Amnesty's
criticism of the U.S.

State Department spokesman James Foley, avoiding a clash with Amnesty, said,
"We welcome their scrutiny. . . . In keeping with our recognition of the
universality of human rights and our openness as a democratic society, we
are proud of our political and judicial systems, which we believe are the
envy of the world."

The head of Amnesty International, Secretary General Pierre Sane, plans to
make the case for the report and remedial measures Amnesty proposes in
Washington on Tuesday followed by visits to Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit
and New York. In Chicago next week, Sane is scheduled to speak to the
Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union,
as well as to meet with community leaders, police officials and supporters
of Operation PUSH.

"The report is played out against a national background of economic and
racial injustice, a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment and front-page
stories of violent crimes committed by children," says the report's
executive summary. "Human-rights violations in the U.S. occur in rural
communities and urban centers from coast to coast. They are committed by
sheriffs and judges, by Immigration and Naturalization Service officials,
and by police and corrections officers in jails and prisons across the
country."

Amnesty calls the U.S. the "world leader in high-tech repression" for police
and prison use of painful and sometimes fatal electroshock devices such as
stun guns and a stun belt, which received attention in June when it was used
by a California judge to subdue a defendant who repeatedly interrupted her
in court proceedings. The remote-control stun belt can knock a prisoner over
and may cause him to lose control of bowel functions. It is used by the U.S.
Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshal's Service, more than 100 counties and at
least 16 states, Amnesty reports.

Amnesty also said that more than 60 people have died in police custody since
1990 after being exposed to pepper spray, which is authorized for use by
some 3,000 U.S. police departments.

Amnesty cites a high level of physical and sexual violence against
prisoners, "with guards at times inciting attacks or not acting to prevent
them," and it notes that minorities, particularly black males, comprise a
disproportionate share of the prison population. "A particularly disturbing
development is the growth of high-tech security units, where inmates are
placed in long-term or even permanent isolation," the executive summary
says.

"Despite being outlawed under international standards, shackling of
prisoners--including their transportation in leg irons--is widespread in the
U.S. prison system."

Amnesty also challenges what it says is the U.S. practice of imprisoning
foreign citizens who arrive seeking political asylum, sometimes putting them
into jail for months with convicted criminals.

Foley said that detention is required by law until a person's asylum claim
can be evaluated. He also said authorities "make every effort to balance
legitimate law-enforcement responsibility with equally important
humanitarian concern."

Having long crusaded against the death penalty, Amnesty criticizes the U.S.
for having "the largest known Death Row population on Earth"--more than
3,300 inmates are sentenced to be executed.

Amnesty notes that 24 states permit the execution of those who were under 18
at the time of the crime. Since 1990, Amnesty says, the U.S. has been one of
only six countries known to have executed juveniles. The others are Iran,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It also alleges the execution of
30 mentally impaired people in the U.S. in the last decade, including Texas
murderer Mario Marquez, who had a mental age of 7.

The report says many local authorities ignore their international obligation
to inform arrested foreigners promptly of their right to consular assistance
under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, which the U.S. ratified in 1969.
More than 60 foreign nationals are under death sentences, and most were not
informed of their Vienna Convention rights, the report alleges.

Amnesty's USA Campaign makes a series of recommendations, including
establishing independent bodies to investigate alleged police brutality and
prisoner abuse, banning electroshock devices, curtailing detention of
asylum-seekers and ratifying several international human-rights accords.

Amnesty asked that the U.S. ban the death penalty for juvenile offenders as
a first step toward abolition of the death penalty. Such a measure is
unlikely, although the Clinton administration is pressing the Senate to
ratify an international convention to eliminate all forms of discrimination
against women.

Checked-by: Don Beck