France/US: Guantanamo Detainee Resettlement a Welcome Step

(Paris) - The French government's decision to accept Algerian detainee Lakhdar Boumediene for resettlement in France marks a welcome step toward closing Guantanamo, Human Rights Watch said today. Because some 50 to 60 detainees cannot be returned to their home countries for fear of torture, they will need to be resettled elsewhere for Guantanamo to close.

Boumediene has been reported to be on a plane en route to France, and official French government spokesmen have confirmed that he was offered French residency.

"European countries have long called on the United States to close Guantanamo," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch. "It is extremely encouraging to see France now making a positive contribution toward helping shut Guantanamo down by accepting a detainee for resettlement."

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China: Tiananmen’s Unhealed Wounds

(New York) - Twenty years after the Chinese army killed untold numbers of unarmed civilians in Beijing and other cities on and around June 3-4, 1989, the Chinese government continues to victimize survivors, victims' families, and others who challenge the official version of events, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch today releases "The Tiananmen Legacy," an assessment of the continuing impact of Tiananmen and a multimedia feature on the crackdown's 20th anniversary, which can be accessed at http://www.hrw.org/en/node/83112. The Chinese Communist Party initially justified its actions during the bloody crackdown as a necessary response to a "counter-revolutionary incident," later revising its characterization of the event as a "political disturbance." "The government's ongoing efforts to censor history, crush dissent, and harass survivors stands in stark contrast to the impressive economic and social developments in China in recent decades," said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "The Chinese government should recognize that 20 years of denial and repression have only caused the wounds of Tiananmen to fester, not heal." The Chinese government has always refused to provide a list of those killed, "disappeared," or imprisoned, and has failed to publish verifiable casualty figures. Read more

This failure to react is extraordinary, and culpable. The United Nations and influential governments have known all along that civilians have been used as human shields by the Tigers in their dwindling stronghold, while government forces have repeatedly shelled the area indiscriminately. Human Rights Watch and others have in recent months repeatedly documented the bloodshed and the reckless disregard for civilian life shown by both sides in the sliver of land where tens of thousands of civilians are still trapped. The Security Council, with responsibility for international peace and security, has made endless commitments to protect civilians, women and children in conflict. Three years ago, a summit of world leaders agreed to share responsibility for protecting populations at grave risk of war crimes or crimes against humanity.

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