U.S. ABUSES HUMAN RIGHTS, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SAYS

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

The London-based group kicks off a yearlong USA Campaign with the release
tomorrow of a 150-page report highlighting what Amnesty calls 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 own practices.

Curt Goering, deputy executive director of Amnesty USA, said he expects
"overwhelming support" from American members for 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 own governments.

Obligations not met

Amnesty says that the United States is "failing to meet" its human-rights
obligations and that the movement for greater protection of human rights
around the world is endangered by American violations.

Critics might challenge Amnesty's decision to use both its financial
resources and moral authority on its high-profile USA Campaign when
repressive regimes - Iraq, Afghanistan, 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, might 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 tomorrow, followed by visits to Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and
New York. In Chicago next week, Sane is 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.

`Background of injustice'

"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, sometimes fatal, electro-shock devices suc
h as stun guns and stun belts.

Also, Amnesty said that more than 60 people have died in police custody
since 1990 after being exposed to pepper spray.

Violence against inmates

Amnesty points to 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 African-American men, make
up 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
in jail for months alongside convicted criminals.

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

Death penalty criticized

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 sentenced to die.

Amnesty notes that 24 states permit the execution of people who were under
18 at the time of the crime. Since 1990, Amnesty says, the U.S. has been one
of only six countries in the world known to have executed juveniles. The
five others are Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It also
cites the execution of 30 mentally impaired people in the past decade.

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 says.

Amnesty's recommendations

Amnesty's USA campaign makes a series of recommendations, including
establishing independent bodies to investigate alleged police brutality and
prisoner abuse, banning electro-shock 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. Although that is
unlikely, the Clinton administration is - as Amnesty urges - pressing the
Senate to ratify an international convention to eliminate all forms of
discrimination against women.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst