Guatemala

Forensic scientists working on exhuming the bodies of victims of the counter-insurgency campaign of the early 1980's came under attack this year. Death threats, arson and harassment of 11 of these workers led the government to post police guards around two groups, the Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) and the Center of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Sciences (CAFCA). The following month, we learned that members of yet another group, the Association for the Integral Development of Victims of Violence in the Verapaces Maya Achi (ADIVIMA), whose exhumations have uncovered 706 bodies to date, were suffering similar threats and telephone calls. Although the government is investigating these incidents, it appears that many of those potentially implicated in these past murders of Guatemalan citizens are still to be found in the ranks of the government and are a danger to those seeking to bring them to justice. Accordingly, we wrote twice, urging the protection of these forensic workers and a thorough investigation of the threats against them.

In July, the main offices of the National Coordinator of Human Rights (Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala, CONADEHGUA) were robbed, and witness testimony implicated the military intelligence agency in the break-in. We urged a full accounting and investigation of this crime, which appeared to be part of the wave of intimidation and harassment assaulting human-rights workers.

The trial of three senior army officers charged with ordering the 1990 murder of Myrna Mack, the Guatemalan anthropologist who exposed the government's internal displacement of indigenous populations, ended with a partial conviction after twelve long years. The assistant director of Guatemala's presidential guard was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but two others were acquitted.

Honduras

We called on the Honduran government to protect Dr. Leo Valladares Lanza, the National Commissioner for Human Rights, who had received death threats. In the past he had been charged by the Supreme Court with engaging in "corruption, extortion and blackmail"--charges which were later dropped, but which served their purpose of harassment and intimidation. The activities which led to these retaliatory actions by the government were those of his Commission, which released a number of reports detailing the rampant corruption both in the judiciary and in the context of relations between the government and the media. We later wrote again on Dr. Lanza's behalf, as well as that of other human-rights activists, with more than 500 endorsements from the scientific community.

Brazil

Dr. Deborah Diniz, an award-winning anthropologist and bioethicist, was fired from her professorship at Catholic University in Brasilia. As this was done in apparent retaliation for Dr. Diniz's views on abortion as expressed in her teaching and in the book she recently published on abortion law in Brazil, we wrote in protest to the Brazilian authorities, deploring this blatant impairment of academic freedom.

Peru

The plight of Lori Berenson, an American citizen still imprisoned in Peru after six years of unceasing appeals, spurred an entreaty to president Bush to press for her release on the occasion of his visit to Peru. We also applied to the president of Peru to grant her a pardon, taking into consideration the violations of due process in the course of Ms. Berenson's most recent trial including the overwhelming reliance on tainted evidence from her first trial, but also her damaged health.

When the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights upheld its earlier decision that the anti-terrorism laws under which Ms. Berenson was convicted were in fact in violation of international standards of human rights, we wrote yet again to President Toledo to ask him for clemency on her behalf and to ask him to take steps to rescind the laws themselves. A letter to President Bush paralleled our effort with President Toledo.

Cuba

Two years after her release from prison, the economist Marta Beatriz Roque Cabellos still suffers from governmental harassment, abuse and humiliation, along with her colleagues at Working Group for the Analysis of the Cuban Socio-Economic Situation. Our distress at her situation--detained, interrogated, strip-searched--impelled us to call upon President Castro to order an immediate end to her persecution.

When we learned that the physician and human rights activist Oscar E. Biscet, released after serving a three-year prison sentence, was rearrested after only a month of freedom, we vented our distress in a message to President Castro. Dr. Biscet was arrested with 16 others while meeting, quite peacefully, at a private home. Thirteen were released but three along with Dr. Biscet remained behind bars under harsh conditions, with formal charges withheld. We requested that all be released promptly or, at the very least, that charges be brought so that they might be answered legally.

The economist Vladimiro Roca Antunez, another member of this group, jailed since July 1997, was released in May 2002--two months prior to the expiration of his sentence.

Addressing a more general problem, we wrote to express our concern at the withholding of permits to leave the country from doctors, nurses, and other health professionals who wish to join their families living outside Cuba.

United States

Sami A. Al-Arian, professor of computer science at the University of South Florida, came under wide attack after an interviewer on television accused him of links with terrorists and terrorist organizations. Dr. Al-Arian's history of rabid Palestinian activism and his calls for, "Death to Israel!" in addition to the security problems associated with the threats he received after the TV interview, led the Board of the University to vote overwhelmingly to dismiss him. We wrote a letter of inquiry to the president of the university, asking if Dr. Al-Arian was being penalized only for expressing his personal opinion, which, however vile, should be protected by his constitutional right to free speech. She responded with assurances of her commitment "to maintaining a safe environment for learning...and the exercise of academic freedom and freedom of expression."

In a similar case, an academic conference entitled "Women and War, Peace and Revolution," drew heavy criticism for its inclusion of controversial Israeli scholar, Ruchama Morton, founder and president of Israel's Physicians for Human Rights, a longtime pro-Palestinian activist. Funding for the conference was subsequently withheld by the host university, SUNY-New Paltz. News reports were not clear as to whether the university was preventing the conference from being held at all, but responding to our letter of inquiry the dean assured us that alternate funding had been found and the conference was indeed to be held.

2002 Reports by Region

• Asia
• Europe
• Middle East/Africa
• The Americas