In our 29th year the Committee of Concerned Scientists continued to play a central advocacy role for colleagues being punished in retaliation for championing democracy and human rights. Again we acted expeditiously to help scientists, engineers, physicians and students suffering abuses. Read below for an account of our activities encompassing 17 countries on four continents, which in a good number of cases contributed to successful conclusions.
As we close the book on 2000 having achieved a number of successes, our resolve to offer hope and help to oppressed colleagues wherever they may be is strengthened. Our successes both large and small are testament to a team effort with hundreds of participants. Special thanks go to our co-chairs Joel Lebowitz, Paul Plotz and Walter Reich whose intense involvement and deft leadership is the engine that drives our enterprise.
Respectfully submitted,
Dorothy Hirsch
Executive Director
China
CCS spearheaded a petition drive on behalf of 11 scientists and students being persecuted for engaging in pro-democracy advocacy. In cooperation with several like-minded scientific groups, we garnered 2,110 endorsements for a message to the higher echelons of the People’s Republic of China, strongly urging the prompt halt to the victimization of those named, in compliance with China’s own Constitution and United Nations human rights instruments it has signed.
Responding to proliferating reports of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, including a number of scientists and academics, we appealed to the Government to honor their internationally recognized right to freedom of belief, expression and association. We named victims, citing instances of arbitrary detention, ill treatment, pressure for the renunciation of beliefs, assignment to forced labor camps for as much as three years without trial, and prison sentences meted out at trials that fell far short of international standards of jurisprudence. We also catalogued blatant violations of academic freedom in the form of dismissals from employment and suspensions from universities.
Vietnam
Upon learning that biologist Ha Si Phu might be charged with treason for his outspoken advocacy of democratic reforms, we reminded North Vietnam of its obligations under international human rights agreements guaranteeing the rights to freedom of expression and association.
As a member of a group of intellectuals, Ha Si Phu has served time for publishing documents critical of the Communist State of Vietnam. Should he be tried for treason, under the Criminal Code, he could draw a sentence ranging from seven years’ imprisonment to death. During the search of his home his computer and diskettes had been confiscated and he was placed under house arrest. A condition of this house arrest requires him to report to police headquarters for interrogation daily.
We appealed for his unconditional release and freedom from prosecution.
Laos
CCS followed up on last year’s intervention on behalf of the economist Latsami Khamphoui, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence for exercising his right to freedom of expression. In this instance we acted on troubling reports that he was being denied needed medical treatment and that he had not received the medicines that had been sent to him. In letters to highly placed authorities we deplored this as well as other aspects of the harsh regime under which he is held. We further urged his prompt release on humanitarian grounds, or at the very least, marked improvement in the conditions of his incarceration lest he die of medical neglect.
Myanmar
In Myanmar we advocated for four imprisoned pro-democracy activists, two of whose whereabouts were unknown and two of whom were serving long sentences in Yangon’s Insein Prison under intolerable conditions. We protested the indignities imposed on these female colleagues for their peaceful activities and urged their release. Pending such action, we called for disclosure to their families of the whereabouts of the two held incommunicado and remedying the conditions under which all are held.
Russia
CCS continued our four-and-a-half-year advocacy for environmentalist Aleksandr Nikitin. Initially, we welcomed a landmark decision that exonerated him of espionage charges in connection with his contribution to a report by Norway’s Bellona Foundation on radioactive waste contamination caused by Russia’s Northern Fleet. But our relief was short-lived: upon learning that the prosecution had appealed the St. Petersburg court’s decision to the Russian Supreme Court, we addressed the chairman of the Court, urging that this appeal be dismissed and Nikitin’s acquittal be confirmed. The Supreme Court heeded our call and the appeals of other like-minded groups and individuals, thus affirming the growing independence of the Russian judicial system. And when the prosecutor general lodged yet another appeal to the Supreme Court to reopen the case, CCS again petitioned the chairman of the Court. We urged rejection of this appeal if Russia is to abide by provisions of human rights instruments it has signed stipulating that cases be resolved within “a reasonable time” and that individuals not be subjected to double jeopardy. The prosecution’s maneuver was foiled; its appeal was dismissed. Aleksandr Nikitin is now free to resume his work championing environmental causes.
The case of a Russian mathematician, Dmitry Neverovsky, who was jailed for seeking alternative civilian service to military service in Chechnya, also prompted CCS interventions. Initially, we called for his release on bail pending trial. Subsequently, on learning that he had been beaten, confined twice in an unheated cell and threatened with psychiatric hospitalization (a reversion to previous Soviet behavior), we urged his release and permission for him to carry out alternative civilian service, as provided for in the Russian Constitution. Ultimately, although Neverovsky was tried and sentenced to one year in prison (a concession to the military), he was immediately released in an amnesty declared to mark the 55th anniversary of the victory over Nazism.
Yet another cause for concern was the refusal engineer Dmitri Murashkovsky’s request to emigrate. Although he had retired from military service with the Russian North Fleet in 1997, his unit nevertheless interfered with his departure on grounds that he was allegedly privy to State secrets. But Murashkovsky argued that all classified equipment had been removed from his ship while it was under repair from 1988 till 1997, when he retired. Noting that Murashkovsky’s appeal to reverse the ruling was denied without an opportunity for him to participate in the hearing, CCS urged the authorities to reconsider his application and allow his departure.
Turning to the conflict in the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, we protested to Russian officialdom its military’s detention of four hospital personnel from Grozny along with the Chechen minister of health and 20 members of his medical team. We urged their release, citing the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, which require the protection of medical personnel in time of conflict. In addition we pointed out that these detentions seriously weakened medical care available to the civilian population.
We also took up the case of Dr. Igor Sutyagin, chief of the section on military technology research at Moscow’s USA and Canada Institute. He was facing trial on charges of espionage and treason even though he had not had access to secret information in connection with his work examining military-civilian relations in Russia and 11 other post-Communist countries. In letters to top-level officials, urging that the charges be dropped, we stressed that Sutyagin had engaged in legitimate scientific work aimed simply at helping these countries to develop a Western-style civilian oversight of the military. To bolster our argument we pointed out that none of the other 11 countries had leveled similar charges. On word that the investigation of his case was concluded, we again pressed for the charges to be dropped and Sutyagin’s harassment stopped.
Yugoslavia
We applauded the Supreme Court of Serbia’s remanding of Albanian pediatrician Flora Brovina’s case back to the district court that had sentenced her to 12 years in prison for alleged terrorism. (This charge was related to her having established an emergency medical center to treat the wounded during the war in Kosovo.) Recognized as Kosovo’s most prominent human rights activist, she had served six months of her sentence at the time of the Supreme Court’s ruling. In our letter to Slobodan Milosevic welcoming the Supreme Court’s action and its attendant recommendation that she be released on bail, we appealed to his good offices for an intervention to achieve Dr. Brovina’s prompt, unconditional release.
The popular revolt that toppled Milosevic and the advent of the new president, Vojislav Kostunica, brought about a reversal in Dr. Brovina’s fortune. President Kostunica granted her a special pardon. She was released from prison and returned to Kosovo to a rousing welcome. Another gratifying development was the announcement by a spokesman for the Government that her release was “a start of the procedure for the release of every political prisoner…whatever nationality they are.”
Austria
CCS came to the defense of Anton Pelinka, a political science professor. Pelinka had been found guilty of defaming the character of former Freedom Party Leader Jorg Haider during an interview on Italian television in May 1999. In letters to the top echelons of the Austrian government, we supported Professor Pelinka’s defense that he had simply pointed out Haider’s repeated public statements that trivialized the ravages of National Socialism and had in effect made its positions more politically acceptable. We stressed that Professor Pelinka, a respected authority on Austrian affairs, had reached his conclusions based on a scholarly analysis of texts in a historical context. We noted further that his prosecution was a patent violation of international human rights instruments to which Austria is a party.
Complicating Jorg Haider’s apparent attempt to use Austria’s judicial system to silence political criticism is the sad reality that his former personal lawyer, Dieter Bohmdorfer, was then serving as minister of justice. We asked whether the Government had addressed the inherent conflict of interest in this and other pending cases while urging that Professor Pelinka be cleared on appeal of defamation charges for speaking the truth based on his scholarly work.
In reply Austria’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs notified us that Professor Pelinka’s appeal was under consideration. It also pointed out that if he were not satisfied after exhausting all domestic remedies, he could turn to an international tribunal under the aegis of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. It noted as well that Haider’s attorney had resigned from his law practice upon assuming the portfolio of minister of justice.
Turkey
Continuing our vigilance and advocacy for members of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), an organization under siege for more than five years, we addressed Turkish authorities concerning the impending trials of three medical doctors: Drs. Alp Ayan, Veli Lok and Zeki Uzun. As members of the Izmir Branch of the HRFT, they had both treated torture victims and documented medical evidence of torture. While reminding the authorities that our colleagues’ activities accorded with the highest principles of medical ethics, we called for speedy due process by independent and impartial courts that would likely result in their exoneration.
After a trial of several months duration Dr. Uzun was found not guilty of aiding an illegal organization. In hailing this acquittal along with Dr. Cumhur Akpinar’s (similarly prosecuted for exercising his fundamental rights), we reiterated our hope that Drs. Ayan and Lok would receive equally fair trials leading to acquittals. Ultimately, Dr. Lok received a suspended sentence of a month’s imprisonment and a fine conditioned on his refraining from comment on certain political issues for a five-year period.
We also revisited the case of Akin Birdal, former president of the Turkish Human Rights Association (HRA), sentenced to two one-year prison terms for voicing his views in quest of a peaceful solution to the conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Earlier Dr. Birdal survived an assassination attempt, which left him with broken bones in his foot and extensive nerve damage to his shoulder that required medical attention. Nevertheless, he was jailed. Subsequently, in response to international clamor he was conditionally released for six months to receive medical treatment, only to be returned to prison. This despite a report by the Ankara State Hospital affirming that the effects of his injuries posed a danger to his life. We called for a prompt end to his unjust imprisonment and a revision of the Turkish Criminal Code and the Anti-Terror Law that restrict peaceful expression, to conform to international human rights standards. After serving an additional six months in prison, Dr. Birdal was finally released.
Iran
We protested against reports of torture and the death sentence imposed on Akbar Mohammadi, a 29-year-old student, who took part in the peaceful student demonstrations at Tehran University of July 1999. We urged commutation of his conviction and death sentence, which we termed inhumane and contrary to all international norms. Our message was heard; his death sentence was commuted and his sentence was reduced to 15 years in prison.
As the one-year anniversary of the brutal police raids on student demonstrators approached, we took up the cudgels again for him and 12 of his fellow students. Naming these young victims, we wrote to Iranian authorities, protesting their harsh prison sentences and mistreatment and calling for their immediate and unconditional release.
In letters to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, we registered our disappointment at their failure to speak out against the inhumane treatment of these students. Our message reiterated our distress, expressed soon after the crackdown, over reports of torture, closed trials by revolutionary tribunals without access to legal counsel and resultant death sentences.
Following up on our protest in late 1999 against the arrest of a number of academics and others who had signed a petition criticizing alleged corruption within the government, we applauded the subsequent release of six of their number. But we reiterated our concern for two whose detention periods had been renewed three times. We are pleased to report that they were released soon thereafter.
We learned subsequently of yet another student leader, Manuchehr Mohammadi, who while serving a 10-year prison term had embarked on a life-threatening hunger strike to protest his maltreatment. We promptly called on the authorities to bring the conditions of his imprisonment into compliance with the United Nations Standards for the Treatment of Prisoners (Article 22) and to provide him with needed medical care for his deteriorating health.
Bahrain
In Bahrain, CCS addressed the arrest of Dr. Jasim Hussain Ali, a senior lecturer in business administration at Bahrain University. Prior to his arrest he had been interrogated about his writings dealing with socio-economic affairs in the Gulf countries. All signs pointed to his detention solely for the expression of his beliefs. Our faxes to Bahraini officials cited his treatment as a violation of his rights under Bahrain’s Constitution as well as international human rights instruments, and urged his prompt release if he was not to be tried. We further requested assurance that Dr. Ali would be accorded access to his family, legal counsel of his choosing and medical attention as needed for the duration of his detention.
We are pleased to report that the campaign organized by the World Organization against Torture and the Bahrain Human Rights Organization, in which CCS participated, bore fruit; Dr. Ali was released after nine days’ imprisonment.
Israel
CCS addressed Prime Minister Ehud Barak in quest of resolution of the case of Palestinian agronomy student Omar Daraghmeh, caught in bureaucratic morass. After completing a year of Danish-subsidized doctoral study in Copenhagen, he was arrested on his return to Israel for a visit, and detained for two months at a Shin Bet facility where he was reportedly maltreated. Ultimately standing trial without resolution on a charge of membership in Hamas, Daraghmeh prepared to return to Denmark armed with a ruling by the presiding military judge that postponed resumption of the trial until the summer and allowed for his departure. Nevertheless, he was barred from leaving despite intervention by the Danish Embassy and a statement issued by the Israeli Foreign Office, confirming his clearance to leave. At this juncture the Shin Bet proposed a deal whereby he could leave for two years — not less. Daraghmeh turned it down because it would have precluded his visiting his home on the West Bank between semesters and because he claimed Denmark would not allow him to study there for more than one year.
Noting that in the face of this impasse he had returned to his job at the Palestinian Authority Department of Agriculture, we urged the prime minister to rein in the Shin Bet. We cited the judge’s statement that “the accused has appeared in court as required, even after his release, and shown good will and readiness to conclude his trial.” After two trial date postponements we again wrote to Prime Minister Barak, urging his intercession. He in turn acknowledged our letter and forwarded it to the competent authorities. Nevertheless Daraghmeh has reported yet another postponement of his trial.
Egypt
CCS decried the arrest of Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a sociology professor at Cairo’s American University and founder of the Ibin Khaldum Center, a think tank that deals with issues of democratization and monitoring of elections. Arrested along with four colleagues at the Center, he was charged with improperly collecting funds from foreign sources to prepare propaganda that could cause damage to the public interest and to Egypt’s reputation abroad. Arguing in letters to Egyptian authorities that, on the contrary, it is these arrests and seizure of files and records that damage Egypt’s reputation, we called for prompt release of our colleagues. We also noted that this action against them suggests governmental intent to quash political dissent and to intimidate human rights defenders. We stressed the need to call a halt to such actions if Egypt is to be regarded as a full-fledged member of the community of nations committed to protecting the fundamental rights of its citizens.
According special consideration to Dr. Ibrahim’s dual U.S. and Egyptian citizenship, we faxed copies of our letters to the U.S. ambassador in Cairo. His response reassured us that the U.S. mission was actively involved in the case, had visited Dr. Ibrahim, and had determined that he was being “treated correctly.” In addition, Ambassador Kurtzer informed us that he had conveyed to senior Egyptian officials our country’s concern over Dr. Ibrahim’s arrest and voiced “our hope that his detention is not inspired by a desire to silence a voice advocating democracy and freedom of expression.”
In response to criticism leveled by human rights groups and the U.S. State Department, Dr. Ibrahim was released on bail after 45 days’ detention without charge. Once formal charges were made, his lawyers asked for and were granted a trial postponement to allow more time to prepare their case. But another request to allow the defense access to the Khaldun Center, which had been closed at the time of the arrests, in order to examine the files and all documents confiscated at that time, was not granted. Reminding the competent authorities of Egypt’s obligation to abide by international standards of jurisprudence, we urged them to honor this request and, ideally, to transfer this case from the State Security Court, where due process is limited and defendants are denied the right to appeal, to the civil court system.
Demonstrating the abiding interest of the U.S. in this case, Ambassador Kurtzer’s office wrote on receipt of a copy of our latest message that in his meetings with Egyptian officials he had stressed the importance of providing Dr. Ibrahim with full due process under the law.
Tunisia
Regrettably, CCS had to revisit the case of the Tunisian physician Moncef Marzouki on learning of his summary dismissal from his position as professor of Public Health in the School of Medicine at the University of Sousse. His dismissal came on the heels of escalated interference with this right to practice his profession over the past eight years, apparently in retaliation for his high-profile human rights advocacy. At various stages of this harassment, CCS had protested his jailing, the sabotaging of his telephone and fax lines, interference with receipt of his mail and restrictions on his right to travel.
He was dismissed upon his return from a trip to Europe and the United States, where he gave interviews to journalists and addressed human rights groups concerning the denial of fundamental liberties to the people of Tunisia.
We urged Tunisian authorities to abide by the country’s Constitution as well as international human rights instruments to which it is a State party. In particular, we asked for Dr. Marzouki’s reinstatement to his position at the university and a halt to his harassment.
In the context of his travail, CCS also called for a reaffirmation of the rights of all citizens to hold and peacefully express their beliefs.
Guatemala
On word of the disappearance of the psychology professor Mayra Angelina Gutierrez Hernandez, we called on Guatemalan officials to launch an immediate investigation and to make the findings public. It appears that her disappearance may be related either to a campaign against the Women’s Commission at the university with which she is affiliated or to her research dealing with illegal adoptions. Our message stated that if the investigation should find that she is being held pending legal prosecution, she should be brought to trial with full access to due process, including legal counsel of her choosing. It added that ideally she should be released promptly in accordance with Guatemala’s obligations to honor freedom of expression and association, as guaranteed by international human rights instruments it has signed.
Cuba
We hailed the release from prison “with conditional liberty” before the expiration of their sentences of engineer Felix A. Bonne Carcases and economist Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, and called for the release of economist Vladimiro Roca Antunez. (As vocal members of the International Dissidents’ Working Group for the Analysis of the Cuban Socio-Economic Situation, they had been found guilty of sedition and were wrongfully jailed for peacefully expressing their pro-democracy views.) We further urged the Cuban government to restore to all of them their full fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the Charter of the United Nations.
Our co-chair, Joel Lebowitz, took it upon himself to circulate a petition among his colleagues on behalf of two prisoners of conscience. Directed to top Cuban authorities and carrying 340 signatures, it pressed for the release from prison of the physician Oscar Elias Biscet (serving a three-year sentence) and the economist Vladimiro Roca Antunez (serving five-year sentence). They are imprisoned for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association.
We reiterated our message calling for Dr. Biscet’s early release on word that he had been subjected to ongoing abuse, including 42 days in solitary confinement, and that his health was rapidly deteriorating. Pending his hoped for release, we urged competent authorities to arrange for the International Red Cross to visit him.
Canada
CCS cosigned a joint open letter to the Ontario Human Rights Commissioner, urging speedy publication of its report on the case of Dr. Kin-Yip Chun, the Chinese seismologist who had been dismissed under humiliating circumstances by the University of Toronto. This after 10 years’ employment in the Physics Department with repeated denials of a tenured position, allegedly owing to ethnic discrimination. It was hoped that the expected report in Dr. Chun’s favor would move the University to reinstate him. A mediation followed resulting in his reinstatement to his former position as a research seismologist.
United States
CCS played a prominent role in quest of justice for Wen Ho Lee, formerly of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, accused of mishandling classified information on nuclear weapons design and testing, indicted on 59 counts and jailed pending trial under inhumane conditions.
Soon after his arrest we wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno, questioning the need for his solitary confinement, his shackling and his limited access to family, and urging that he be treated with the highest possible standards of humanity and dignity, consistent with the presumption of innocence. On receipt of an unsatisfactory reply, we wrote again, calling for a halt to the demeaning aspects of his internment.
We sent yet another letter to Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, alluding to the considerable concern being voiced over the possibility that ethnic prejudice figured in Dr. Lee’s prosecution. We stressed the crucial need for the Secretary to “make it clear in word as well as deed that ethnic discrimination is utterly impermissible in the operations of our national laboratories.” In response, the Deputy Secretary of Energy stated categorically that the Department “does not engage in ethnic ‘profiling’ or any method of identifying potential foreign agents based on ethnic affiliation.” He further assured us that the Department “is fervently committed to treating all DOE personnel, regardless of their ethnic background, with dignity, respect, and professionalism.”
When months passed with no improvement in the severe regime under which Dr. Lee was held, CCS initiated and coordinated the electronic circulation of a petition to Janet Reno, seeking pre-trial justice for Lee. With the cooperation of the human rights committees of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society, the petition garnered more than 1,400 endorsements. In anticipation of a bail hearing in mid-August, and more than eight months into his detention with trial not scheduled for months, the petition was sent to Secretary Reno. Emphasizing that they made no presumption as to Dr. Lee’s guilt or innocence, the signers protested Dr. Lee’s continuing “cruel and degrading” treatment as evidence that he was being punished even before he had had his day in court.
After nine months’ imprisonment the government dropped its case against Dr. Lee and released him in return for his agreement to plead guilty to the single charge of mishandling classified information.
CCS also made representations to the US government in the case of Lori Berenson. Berenson, an American citizen imprisoned in Peru for four years, was hunger striking to draw attention to her plight. CCS wrote to President Clinton, reminding him that she had been convicted of treason by a military tribunal without an opportunity to defend herself. Noting that the harsh regime under which she is jailed had ravaged her health, we voiced fear that her hunger strike, born of desperation, might endanger her very life. We urged the president to “employ all means necessary…” to gain her release, thus heeding an act of Congress that called for such action.
At this writing there is renewed hope — though guarded — for a successful resolution of this troubling case. Peru’s top military tribunal has overturned Berenson’s life sentence for alleged treason and granted her a new trial in a civilian court. But sadly, the presumption of guilt until proven innocent is inherent in Peru’s judicial system, and any number of irregularities have surfaced in this prosecution.