Press releases
Colombia: Amnesty condemns killing of Caquetá governor - 23 December 2009
Amnesty International today condemned the kidnapping and killing of Luis Francisco Cuéllar Carvajal, Governor of the Colombian department of Caquetá in the south of the country.Lithuania admits existence of secret prison - 22 December 2009
A Lithuanian parliamentary committee concluded that a CIA secret prison operated in Lithuania during the US-led “war on terror”Côte d’Ivoire: Stop attempt to defraud toxic waste dump victims - 18 December 2009
An attempt to defraud victims of the Trafigura toxic waste dump disaster out of $45 million must be stopped, Amnesty International said today in an open letter.Nepal: Bar human rights violators from UN peacekeeping missions - 18 December 2009
Amnesty International today called on Nepal’s government to immediately fix the flawed vetting process that allowed an army major charged with murder to participate in the United Nations peace keeping mission in the Central African Republic.
Major Niranjan Basnet is charged with murdering 15-year-old Maina Sunuwar on 17 February 2004. She died in military custody after she was subjected to electrocution and drowning during interrogation. Her body was later exhumed from an army barracks where Nepali UN peacekeepers are trained.
In a letter to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal the organization said the inclusion of Major Basnet in the peace keeping force revealed serious shortcomings in the vetting of troops from the Nepal Army to UN missions that could put civilians at risk in countries where they are deployed.
Mongolia: Legacy of deadly July riots– impunity and injustice - 18 December 2009
The Government of Mongolia has failed to effectively respond to human rights abuses
that took place during the July 2008 riot in Sukhbaatar Square, Ulaanbaatar, and its aftermath leaving a legacy of impunity and injustice, Amnesty International said in a report released today.
Amnesty International’s report describes how hundreds of people were taken to police detention centres where they were held in over-crowded cells without food or water for up to 72 hours during the riots. Police beat detainees while they were in custody and during interrogations to extract “confessions”.
Over 700 people were arrested and over 100 more in the weeks following, for suspected offences committed during the riot.
